What a Difference: Edited Version
by Clover123
Summary: "What ifs" can sometimes be a more serious question. What if Travis had survived after the meeting in the forest? What if Larry had survived the meat locker ordeal? What if Ben was a little girl? Story is probably better than the summary. Kenjaa, ChrOmid, and eventual LilLee (don't like? don't read.)
1. The Forest

**Hey, everyone. This is Clover, doing a revamp of my story, What a Difference. I decided to redo this story after realizing that it wasn't going the way I wanted it to. Well, it's basically the same thing, just with some fixed inconsistencies and the removal of some certain scenes. It's the same pairings, too. So I hope that you enjoy what I have so far. Please leave a review on what you think of the edited version. Please enjoy this. :) **

**I don't own the Walking Dead. **

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Lee and Mark slowly walked through the forest and looked on as leaves fell from the trees. The red and orange leaves crunched underneath their shoes.

It had been three months since the apocalypse had started, at least according to Lilly, who had told them she was only half sure. They were hunting, hoping to find something to eat.

Lee crouched down, bringing his axe over his head as he snuck up on a walker with long grizzled hair. It was clearly snacking on what seemed to be a small animal. He looked back at Mark who nodded. Lee smashed the axe down into the walker's skull and pulled it out just as fast.

"Dammit. What'd they get this time?" the black haired man asked, letting his shoulder's sag.

Lee sighed and replied, "Looks like a rabbit." It was a small carcass that looked like it had been disemboweled. He shook his head and looked around.

Mark looked at him mournfully. "Well, that's another meal lost." He shook his head and the two men continued down the path.  
"I can't believe we went through all that commissary food in three months – or however long it's been. It seemed like so much at the time." he added, looking down hungrily.

They turned a corner.

"Maybe you shouldn't have opened the door." Lee suggested, barely paying attention.

"Yeah, except then I'd probably BE food by now. Trust me, I have no regrets!" Mark shook his head, as though trying to put the images out of his mind. Lee looked over to him and in a matter of fact tone, said "A rabbit's hardly a meal Mark, but… I'd take it."

Leaves fell and birds chirped in the background. Lee couldn't help but find it ironic that things that usually chirped during happy movies were chirping during a Zombie Apocalypse, something absolutely miserable.

"No kidding." Mark's voice shook Lee out of his train of thought. They continued down the path.

"You know," Mark said a moment later. "When I accidently grabbed for Carley's rations the other night, I thought she was gonna take off my hand!" Lee chuckled at the news reporter's behavior.

"We're all on edge. Cut her some slack." Mark looked down.  
"Yeah, you're right. I wish I knew how much food we have left…"

"You'll have to ask Lilly. She's the one handling the rations." Lee told him, scanning their surroundings for any walkers that might be following them. He had liked Lilly. She was smart, brave, and at least treated Lee better than her father.

"Or, you know, mishandling them if you ask Kenny." That was the one thing that was putting them all on edge. Kenny didn't get along with Lilly or Larry very well, so whenever Lee sided with Lilly (who usually spoke very rationally), Kenny always went off on them. But Lee decided not to say this.

"He's just worried about Katjaa and Duck getting enough food. I don't blame him. I worry about Clementine, too." He had been worried about whether or not Clementine was getting enough food. She had already been thin, three months ago, right after the outbreak had started, and now she was beyond skinny.

Mark attempted to move the subject away from rations and asked, "So, do you think Kenny's having anymore luck than we are out here?"  
"Yeah, I hope so."

"Yep, between the lack of food and Kenny and Lilly fighting all of the time, things are getting pretty tense back at the Motor Inn. You know, Kenny's been talking about taking off if he can get that RV running." Lee knew where the conversation was going.

"Kenny won't abandon us. He's a good man."  
Mark shook his head and replied, "I guess we'll see. I can't blame him though. Did you hear Larry going off on him last night? What's the old guy's deal anyway? Seems like he's got a problem with you, in particular."

Before Lee could respond, there was a sudden squawking of a crow that suddenly flew in front of them and landed on a tree branch.

"He thinks I'm a danger to the group, and Clementine, too!"

"I think he's the one putting us in danger. The way Lilly worries about his health, I wouldn't be surprised if she's been skimming him rations." Mark turned around and kept on. "And I know Lilly thinks he getting weaker, but the guy's all muscle. He's a walking piledriver! I know I wouldn't want to be stuck in a room with him! And didn't he punch you in the face one time?"

"Knocked me flat." Lee grumbled, remembering how Larry had punched him in the face back in the drugstore and tried to leave him there.

Mark ran to a large rock, knelt down, and pointed his gun at the crow.

"Don't. Gunshot will bring walkers. One bird's not worth it." Lee admonished, pushing Mark's gun down.

Mark let out an angry sigh. "Yeah, I know… I'm just… really frickin' hungry." All of the sudden, a loud scream that obviously came from a man broke the heavy silence.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The crow took off.  
"SHIT! Was that Kenny?!" Mark shouted, looking around frantically.  
"I don't know… it didn't sound like him!" Both took off towards the pain filled screams. They ran frantically down the dirt path and stumbled upon a clearing.

There was a man with reddish brown hair and a full out beard, a dark haired, teenage boy (maybe 14 or 15 at the oldest) wearing what looked like a high school hoodie, and a little girl with dark blonde hair in stained red pajamas.

"Argggggg!" the man cried out as the boy attempted to pull his leg out. "Travis - just stop!" The girl turned around and let out a shriek.

"Jesus Christ!" Mark shouted at the same time the girl screamed. The boy turned around and shouted, "Shit! No… no! Please don't kill us! We just want to help my teacher!" He threw his arm in surrender. The little girl hid behind him and the older man was apparently in too much pain to notice. Lee looked down at the bear trap.

"We're not goin' to hurt you!" Lee shouted, trying to calm them all down. "We'll help you, okay. Both you need to calm yourselves; you'll bring walkers!"

"Those dead things -?"

Just then, Kenny came running out of the other side of the woods, holding his gun in a position as though he was about to shoot something.

"Are y'all – holy crap! What happened?"

"We need to help them, the guy's leg is stuck in a bear trap."

"Oh thank you! Hurry please!" None of the survivors seemed to notice a bald walker with much of its jaw missing come out from behind one of the trees.

The older man whimpered in such a way that Lee would've never thought possible.

Mark knelt down next to the trap, and said, "Lee, this trap's been altered! There's no release latch!"

The teen turned around, panicked.

"…Oh no." Several other walkers were limping out of the woods, drawn by the man's and the girl's screams.

"Shit! Walkers!" Kenny swore. "It's now or never, Lee!"

The man closed his eyes and begged. "Please… get me out of this!"

Lee stepped forward. "Mark, get them back!" he said, referring to the girl and the teenage boy. "Kenny, keep those walkers off of me!" Kenny shot at one of them.

Lee noticed a chain and quickly moved closer to it. He raised his axe and brought it down hard. It didn't budge.

"Hurry! Arrgh!"

Lee tried it again and heard the boy say, "There's got to be something we can do!"

After one more try, Mark stopped him.

"Forget it! We used chains like this back at the air force base to lift ordinance. You can't cut through it!"

"Is he going to make it?"

Lee bent over the man's leg, then stood up and held his axe above his head. He knew what he had to do…

"Oh, God! No!" … apparently so did the man.  
"I'm so sorry, man. I'm gonna have to cut you out."

"No! Please! Try the trap again! Anything but that!" Without a word, Lee swung the axe down.  
"ARHHHHHHHHRGGGGGGGGG!" It made a large dent in the man's leg.

He rolled over and covered his eyes. Lee heard Mark say, "Dammit! Lee, just cut off his fucking leg!" Lee began to chop his leg like firewood. The fourth time, he finally came free.

The blood began to squirt like a sprinkler, and the man passed out.  
"Is he… is he dead?" the boy asked, as the girl bent over to vomit.  
"NO! He's just passed out!"

Kenny leaned over. "If he's alive, grab him and let's go!" Mark bent over and began to boost him up. The walkers were getting even closer to them. They began to take off. The girl was still vomiting, and walker came within inches of her.

"SUMMER!" the boy yelled, grabbing her by the hand. He ran after Lee, Mark, and Kenny, dragging the little girl, Summer, by her hand after them. She slopped the sick down her shirt, but eventually gained balance and was running on her own.

Lee knew Lilly wasn't going to be happy.

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**Please leave me a review and let me know what you think. :)**


	2. 4 for 11

**Alrighty, here's the second chapter. Since I've written up until chapter 14, and have edited up to chapter 10, so I will probably release another chapter today, and two or three more tomorrow. I definitely want to get the chapters out as fast as I can, so I can start on chapter 15 and 16. **

**I don't own The Walking Dead. **

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At the Motel, everyone was sort of doing their own thing. Larry was nailing some boards with a rock, Duck was coloring with some chalk, Clementine was kicking a ball at the trashcan, Lilly was on watch, and Katjaa knelt down beside Duck, watching him coloring.

_Bang_. The soccer ball bounced off the can and rolled back._ Bang_. Repeat.  
Lilly scanned the area from the top of the RV. _Duck… Katjaa… Where'd Clementine's hat go? … Dad… bushes rustling – _WAIT WHAT?

Lilly picked up the rifle. _Bang. Bang. Bounce_.

She whistled and everyone froze. Carley squatted down and made her way over to Duck and Katjaa. Lilly looked over to them, and then back at the rustling bushes.  
Lee came running out of the bushes. "GET THE GATES OPEN! We've got wounded!"

"Shit! What they hell are they doing!" Mark came out with a man on his shoulders – _the man only had one leg _– and following them were two children, one teen boy and a little girl about Clementine's age. Katjaa and Carley rushed to the "gates" that were two dumpsters.

"Oh my God," Katjaa whispered.  
"Come on, come on!" Kenny said, looking around.

"What happen?!" came Katjaa's voice.

"Shit!" Larry had come over from the fence, and was looking at them angrily.

"Oh, god!"

"Who ARE these people!" Larry shouted furiously.

"No time to explain!" Mark shouted, laying the man on the truck. "Katjaa, please we need you!" the blonde woman sprinted over to the truck.

"Lee, are you okay?" Clementine asked through all of the commotion.  
"I'll see what I can do!" said Katjaa frantically, leaning over the man.

"Kat, can you fix him?"  
"I DON'T KNOW!" Katjaa shouted, feeling the pressure. "Jesus, Ken!"

"Lee! LEE!" Lilly shouted over all of the commotion. Lee looked over the brown haired woman. She didn't look happy.

"Lilly, look –"

"What the hell? You can't just bring back more mouths to feed!"  
"I couldn't just leave him!"

"We're not responsible for every struggling survivor out there! We need to look after ourselves!"

Lee scowled at her, and looked over to the two kids. "He had KIDS, Lilly!" he remembered Glenn saying the exact same thing all those months ago at the drugstore. "That boy and the little girl! You want me to leave two children to fend for themselves?!"

Lilly shook her head. "No! I never said that -" She shook her head and looked over to the kids. "What if there are more of them? What if they follow you here?" The dark haired boy shook his head in a terrified sort of way.

"N-no! I'm the only kid from our school who got out, we found Summer on the road and took her with us! Please, lady!"

"How do we know he's not lying?" Larry asked, giving them his two cents.

"He's not," said another voice. Summer was standing next to Larry, looking completely done. "'cause Travis doesn't lie!"

Larry looked at Summer with disdain. "Oh, yeah? How can we trust you, you little brat?!" Summer flinched very slightly, but took off running towards Katjaa.

"Can you fix Mr. David?" she asked in a pleading tone. "Please?"

"I… I don't know…"

Meanwhile, the others were still arguing.

"Wait," said Carley, shaking her head. "We haven't even talked to the older boy – Travis right? – Maybe he could be useful. And making the little girl leave would be like making Clementine or Duck leave! They're just kids, but they could be useful."  
"Come on, Lilly. These are people! People trying to survive, just like us!"

"Mark, the only you're here is because you had food, and enough for all of us, but there's barely a weeks worth left, and I don't suppose either of you have anything, do you?"

Travis bit his lip. "All that the three of us have been eating are berries and whatever else we can find. We've got nothing with us…"

"Fine, you guys fight it out then." Mark scoffed. "Welcome to the family kids…" Travis frowned as Mark walked away to help Larry with the fence. Summer crossed her arms and looked a bit afraid.

"Come over here," Clementine said quietly, taking Summer's hand, "Come see what I drew."

"What?" Travis asked a bit confused. "I don't –"

She started dragging Summer by the hand and took Travis by the other hand. "Just come on, okay?" And with that, she led them both back to her's and Duck's drawings.

"Y'Know," Kenny began, looking at Lilly who looked extremely annoyed, "You like to think you're the leader of this little group," Lilly turned to him with her arms crossed. "But we can make our own goddamned decisions! This isn't your personal dictator ship!" Carley scoffed and shook her head.

"Oh come on! You're being dramatic!" Kenny made a face at her that clearly said "piss off".

"Everything always turns into a power struggle between you two. I'm not going to be a part of it!" And with that, Carley walked off.

"Hey, I didn't _ask_ to lead this group. Everybody was happy to have me distributing the food when there was plenty to go around, but now that it's running out, all of the sudden I'm a goddamn Nazi!"

"Listen!" Lee cut in, trying to break the two up. "It doesn't matter who's in charge! Those people are here now. I guess we just have to decide what happens next."

"NO Lee!" Kenny shouted angrily. "It does matter! ONE person can't be in charge of _everything_!" He shook his head. "Y'Know it might feel safe for you to sit on the fence, but sooner or later you're going to have to decide who's side you're on." Kenny shook his head and walked away with his gun.

Lilly turned back to Lee, and opened her mouth to say something, when Larry shouted, "I don't see any of you stepping up to make the hard decisions! My girl's got more balls than all of you combined!"

"Dad, please… Why don't you go work on the fence with Mark?" Larry scowled furiously at Lilly, as though it was beneath him to listen to her opinion, but walked away a moment later. Lilly turned back to Lee and looked both angry and annoyed.

"You think this is easy for me? Everybody is starting to hate me because I'm the one who rations the food. But nobody else wants to!" She walked back to the RV, and Lee followed her. She bent down and looked into a bag.

"You know what?" She pulled out that day's rations. "I'm not doing it today. You do it." In a fake cheerful voice, she continued. "Here's today's food rations. There's not enough for everyone. Good luck." Lee took the rations from her and looked at them.

Two cheese and cracker packs, a dry piece of jerky, and half an apple.

Everyone, seemingly on cue looked up at him hungrily.

_You only have 4 rations for 11 hungry people. _

Lee's first instinct was to eat something, but then he felt Lilly's gaze bearing into him, and knew he was going to have to do the right thing, so he headed straight for the kids.

"Y'all hungry?" In response, three of the four of them looked up at Lee. Travis hugged his knees and didn't say anything.

"Travis, right?" Travis nodded. "You want anything?" Travis shrugged. Lee handed him the jerky in response, then kneeled down to the kids' level and handed Duck one of the cheese and crackers packs.

"Alright! Food!"

"Are you okay, Clementine?" Clem nodded.

"What happened to your hat?"

"I don't know. Can you help me find it?" Lee smiled slightly.

"Sure, when did you lose it?"

"Well I had it a few days ago."

"I promise if I find it, I'll give it to you." Clem didn't smile, but thanked him. "'Course."

Then, Lee said to her, "Want anything? I've got crackers and cheese and half an apple." Clem smiled brightly. "Can I have the crackers?" Lee chuckled and handed the pack to her. He then remembered the last child.

"Hey." Summer looked up. "Your name's Summer, right?"

"Yeah."

Without another word, Lee gave her the apple. "Thank you. Can Miss Katjaa fix Mr. David? He looks bad."

Lee didn't answer immediatly. He didn't know what to say. "I don't know. We'll just have to see." Lee stood up and walked over to Lilly, who was sitting on guard, looking at the forest, over in the distance.

"Well, that's it. I gave the rations to the kids." Lilly looked down, disgruntled.

"Not such an easy job, is it?" Lee shook his head.

"I never said it was. I don't envy you. I don't know how you have the strength to do this every day."

"I don't have a choice." Lee looked over at Carley, guiltily. She was skin and bones.

"It's okay. I know you're still watching out for me." She smirked a bit.

"Hey, Lee?" Kenny had come over from his truck.

"Kenny, I know I ran out of food before – "Kenny cut him off.

"Hey, it was a tough choice, but you took care of the kids. That's what a real man does." Kenny smiled. It made Lee feel better to know that at least Kenny agreed with him.

"Thanks, Kenny."

Kenny shrugged. "Still, I guess _some people _aren't going to be happy with your choices." Once again, on cue, Larry's voice could be heard.

"You're out?! What happened to MY food?" Lee turned around to see Larry coming towards him, and Mark giving him a look.

"There's none left. The kids got it."

"Wait, so you're saying you gave the hoodlum and the brat food, but not me? You keep treating people like this and your days in this group are numbered!" Kenny's voice could be heard behind him.

"_You're _one to talk, old man." Larry didn't seem fazed and responded in an almost calm way.

"Yeah, well I don't see _you _working on that wall." He turned and walked back to Mark. Kenny also turned and walked back to his truck.

For some reason, Lee had an urge to apologize, no matter how much of an asshole Larry was being. He walked over there a moment later, only to hear this conversation:

"Will you hold the damn board steady?"

"I'm trying! I didn't realize I was getting this weak already."

"What do you want? A handout? I've sixty cents and some old lint in my pocket, if you'll shut up and stop being such a pansy!" Larry then turned around and glared.

"I'm… really sorry that there's no food left."

"Go piss up a flagpole, Lee." Ignoring this, Lee continued.

"You really need to talk to Lilly about getting along with Kenny." Larry scoffed.

"Lilly can make her own friends." Lee knew Larry didn't understand the seriousness of the situation.

"It's not about making friends. We're all in this together, and we've gotta start acting like it." Larry didn't seem to care.

"Eh, stuff all that. We'd be fine without you."

"Need any help with the wall?" Larry shook his head in response.

"Actually," Mark said, as a thought came to him. "We _could _use your axe. You mind if we take it?" Larry turned around too, apparently thinking this was a potentially good idea. "Yeah, give us that thing for a bit."  
Lee walked over to the RV, grabbed his "fire fighting axe", as he had dubbed it, and returned to the wall.

"Here, Mark. This should help." Mark to it from him.

"Thanks."

"Hey," said Larry mildly. "I'm the one doing all the work over here. You didn't think to give _me _the axe?"

Mark rolled his eyes. "Come on, Larry, give it a rest. I'm sure Lee's getting real tired of you thinking he's a danger to the group."  
Larry looked at Lee. "Oh, so that's what you told him?"

Lee looked over at Mark. "That's not what I meant…" Larry stepped so close, Lee was looking up to talk.

"No? Than what DID you mean?" Mark seemed to think this was the best time to intervene.

"Alright, let's take a step back. Maybe you two _should _keep your distance."

"Fine with me." said Larry, turning around to finish nailing the boards in.

Lee crossed his arms and looked at Mark. Mark looked back at him with a look that would fit someone saying "sorry I asked", and then turned around.

"Ken! Lee!" Katjaa called from the truck. "I need you guys!"

Kenny looked solemn and said quietly, "He didn't make it, did he?"

"He… lost too much blood. I'm sorry." Kenny shook his head.

"God dammit!" he walked over to the RV, kicked Lilly's bag, and said, "I'm gettin' real sick of this shit!"

Katjaa huffed. "Ken come back, there's nothing…"

"I'm getting sick of this shit too." Katjaa scowled.

"You don't think I am? I don't know, maybe it's for the best. We're already struggling to feed our OWN kids." Lee sighed.

"That… man you brought, but he was never going to survive." Lee nodded and agreed.

"At least he's not our problem anymore." Katjaa glanced over at Summer and Travis.

"What about the other kids?" Before Lee could say something, a pair of rotting hands grabbed Katjaa by the shoulders and face. She let out a scream.

"SHIT! KATJAA!" Lee grabbed the walker David and began trying to push his way between the two, but he wasn't letting go.

Finally, he pushed him back into the truck, after being able to separate the two.

"THE AXE!" he screamed at Mark and Larry. "HURRY!" the walker grabbed his arm and pulled him into the truck.

Lee was face – to – face with the man and slammed his head into the side of the truck. Then the other side, repeat.

Out of the corner of his eye, Mark had run to the side with the axe.

"MOVE! MOVE!" Lee pushed the walker by the truck's back window. Mark swung – and missed, instead shattering the glass and getting the axe stuck.

"Shit! It's stuck!"

"THANKS FOR THE INFO, CAPTAIN OBVIOUS!" Katjaa shrieked at Mark, who was trying to pull it out.

Slowly, the walker came up to him, and Lee managed to pin him up against the truck, but pulled his foot up accidentally and the walker began crawling up his leg.

Lee kicked him, his heart racing, and backed up –

"UHGH!" Lee fell backwards out of the truck and smacked his head on the ground, with David crawling after him.

David fell on him, and Lee grabbed his face, digging his fingers into the eye sockets. He saw Carley out of his peripheral vision putting the ammo into her gun as fast as she could.

"Shoot it!" Carley put the gun to his head and shot him. David collapsed on him, dead (for the second time, he had to remind himself).

"Are you okay?" Carley asked, crouching down to the level he was at.

"Yeah, thanks." Larry was looking straight at him accusingly.

"WHY DID YOU BRING HIM HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE, ASSHOLE?!" Larry screamed. Lee got up without answering.  
"Dad, calm down!" Lilly said, looking at him concerned.

"Shut up, Lilly!" Larry turned to Lee and yelled, "You're going to get us ALL killed!"

Travis walked up to the, with Summer by his side.

"Why didn't you tell us he was bitten?!" Kenny demanded, calming down Katjaa.

Travis was almost in tears, while Summer pressed her hands over her eyes.

"What?!"

"He was bitten, and you didn't say a goddamn word about it!" The teen looked like he was being insulted.

"What're you talking about?! He _wasn't _bitten!"

"Well your 'not bitten' friend here came back to life and tried to kill my wife!"

Travis looked both confused and worried. It was as though he hadn't known that a bite killed you.

"Do they know?" Summer asked in a tiny voice, tugging at Travis's sleeve. She looked at the other people, then back at Travis. "They dunno, Trav." Travis's eyes suddenly widened with a harsh realization. And Lee had no idea what the two children were talking about.

"Little girl," Kenny began, taking his hand off of his gun. "I am running out of ways to ask: what the hell are you talkin' about?" Travis gave Kenny a harsh look.

He took a deep breath, then said, "It's not the bite that does it." Several jaws hit the floor in shock, but even more answered him with looks of confusion.

_Is he saying what I think he's saying?_ Lee thought to himself, looking away for a moment.

"No matter how you die... you come back as one of _them_." Travis covered his mouth for a moment, as though he were about to sick up. "If you don't destroy the brain, that's what's gonna happen. I'm... sorry, I thought you guys knew."

"Holy… We're all infected?" Lee asked in shock, with wide eyes, and a dropped jaw. "Everyone?"

"I guess, yeah. I saw two girls turn. Jenny and her friend Judith. They popped some pills, a lot of pills, man. And they went into the bathroom. My friend Melanie went in their and..." Travis grimaced. "Look, all I know is that they weren't bitten. I would swear on Summer's life."

"Why _my _life?" Travis looked at her with an already grim face. "...Oh."

Lee was at a loss for words.

Lilly was next to him with her head in her hands. Lee didn't envy her position, even more than before. Now, there was a chance that anyone could turn if they died, not just bite victims. That put about 4 times as much stress on her.

"Back off!" Carley cried out all of the sudden, knocking the group members out of their shock.

Two men stood outside the gates.

"Whoa, lady, relax." said one of them. He was carrying a fuel container. "Me and my brother… we… we just wanna know if you can help us out!"

"I SAID BACK OFF!" Carley shouted again, apparently not caring.

"Carley…" Lilly said quietly, trying to get her to quiet down

"We don't want any trouble!" Lee called over the fence. Neither moved.

"Of course!" said the same one. "Neither do we! I'm Andy St. John. This here's my brother, Danny."

Kenny pointed his gun at them. It looked like he already didn't believe them.

"We're just out lookin' for gasoline. Looks like you folks got the motel locked down, which is fine, but if you could spare any gas we'd be much obliged."

Carley didn't bring down her gun, and called, "Why do you need gas?"

The second brother, Danny spoke in a similar voice.

"Our place is protected by an electric fence. Generators provide the electricity." Andy St. John smirked.

"Generators run on gas."

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**Don't forget to leave a review. **


	3. To The Dairy

**Hello again, readers! I was quite happy to have 2 reviews, but I would really appreciate more feedback. So, I'll release this chapter and another chapter together, then tomorrow I will release another 2 chapters, until I've released all 14 chapters. Anyway, please try to enjoy my crummy writing and maybe favorite, review, or follow or whatever. :)**

**I do not own The Walking Dead.**

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Carley huffed, still pointing the gun at the two men.

"Look, we own a dairy farm a few miles up the road. If you'll be willing to lower your guns, we can talk about some kind of trade." Lee didn't know what to think.

"How ya'll doin' on food?" The other creepier brother asked. "We got plenty up at the dairy." Mark's eyes widened and he looked at Lee expectantly. Lilly scowled. She sighed and said, "Lee, why don't you and Mark go check the place out, see if it's legit?"

Carley finally took her gun down. "I'm going with you. I've got your back if anything's fishy."

Travis seemed to have worked up the courage to speak. "I'll go too, if that's alright."

"So, what're ya'll thinking?" Lee thought for a moment.

"You've got a deal." Lee started. The two brothers seemed happy about this, almost too happy for Lee's liking. "We'll bring _some _gas to your dairy. In exchange, you give us some food to bring back. We'll see how this goes from there."

Andy smiled a bit. "Sounds fair. A couple of gallons should power one of our generators for a while."

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A few minutes later, Lee, Carley, Mark, and Travis, joined by the brothers walked through the forest.

"So… this dairy… you guys really have food?" Mark asked, in a worried tone. Andy smiled.

"Sure do. We lost most of the cattle, but we still have lots of milk, butter, and cheese stocked up." Lee thought this was great. Finally, they may have found somewhere where the people had food stocked up, and likely had a great way to keep themselves safe.

Danny casually threw out, "And with the vegetables we grow, we've got plenty."

Lee and Carley trailed behind with Travis just barely ahead of them.

"It's nice to get away from the motel for a while," Carley said, breathing in the fresh air. "This Lilly/Kenny thing is starting to get ridiculous. Personally, I'd be happier if you started to take charge more." Lee was taken aback by this.

"You really think they would want me as a leader?"

"... I thought you, the mustache guy, and the girl with the rifle were all leaders." said Travis, scratching his ear. "I thought wrong, I guess. But you seem smart."

"Sure," said Carley, the corners of her mouth curving upward a bit. "Everybody looks up to you." Lee thought of Larry.

"Well… not everyone thinks I'm so trustworthy."

"Because of your past." It was less of a question and more of a statement. "Does anyone else know?"

Lee closed his eyes for a moment.

"Larry knows." Carley shook her head.

"Great. That can't be easy to live with."

"Clementine, she might know. She was there when we were talking in the drugstore and she asked me about it. I lied to her. I didn't know if she would freak out, or what." He shook his head. Carley looked a way for a moment, and then back at Lee.

"What exactly _did_ happen with the senator?" Lee sucked in a sharp breath and remembered everything that had happened… Samantha screaming for him to stop, Hans gasping for breath… everything. He had never meant to take it that far.

"It was an accident… I mean… I feel like I knew about her affair. Sometimes I wonder if I should talk to the rest of the group about it."

Carley shook her head quickly. "You don't _have _to. Whatever happened before thing went to hell doesn't exactly matter anymore." Lee scoffed, thinking of Larry's opinion of him.

"Not sure _everyone _would see it that way." Carley shrugged.

"Maybe you're right…"She shook her head again. "Listen, over the years I've reported on some pretty messed up shit. I've seen situations like yours a hundred times and this doesn't have to make you a bad person!"

"I… er, really appreciate that."

"… I mean thank God Lee showed up when he did! Right, Lee?" Mark said, looking back.

Andy looked back as they kept walking. "Yeah, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, Lee?"

"Where are you from?" Danny asked, slowing down a bit. Lee didn't think this was really important.

"The motor inn's my home, now I guess."

"Hm." Andy said in a disdainful voice. "That place has seen better days, huh?"

"You can say _that _again." Carley replied, shaking her head. Andy didn't bother to look back.

"Y'all seem to be pretty settled in. Who's runnin' the place?" Lee had to think for a moment. Lilly seemed to be "in charge", but so did Kenny…

"We work as a group, pretty much. All of us looking out for each other." _That's not exactly the case…_

Andy smiled broadly. "I hear that! There's so many dumbasses out there, fightin' each other these days… It's just stupid."

"How many people do you have over there?" Danny asked. "So we can make sure Momma cooks enough food?"

"Eleven, as of about an hour before you guys showed up. We just found Travis here, and… is she your sister? Summer?" Travis shook his head sadly.

"We found her and her uncle on the road. They were looking for help, but her uncle was bitten. We had to put him down."

"That sucks." Carley remarked. Travis nodded and looked down.

"Yeah. He had this huge chunk taken out of his elbow. He said his wife got eaten or something - I guess she was pregnant. He was fine, then he started coughing up blood all over Summer. You know how that goes..."

"We don't see kids very often. How many you got?"

"Four, if you include Travis. How old are you again?" Lee asked, glancing over at Travis.

"I'm fourteen. Summer just turned six. What about your kids?"

"Clementine's eight and Duck's ten."

"Well, we'd love to get ya'll out to the dairy. Like I said, we've got plenty of food, and quite frankly could always use the extra helping hand."

Travis smiled, ever so slightly. "My stepdad and my mom owned a ranch. I used to help out with the horses and goats on the weekends if I wasn't with my dad."

"That's great," Danny said unenthusiastically. "Everything helps!"

"Momma's been runnin' the dairy for as long as I can remember, but now it's gettin' –"

"You think you gonna cut me out of this?!" a male voice yelled from ahead the path.

"Shit! Get down!" Andy warned, motioning for them get down. Lee and Carley both squatted immediately, followed by the others. Andy began to crawl ahead as second voice answered.

"No one's tryin' to cut you out of anything!" Two men, one in a baseball cap, and the other in a gray ski mask were standing in the clearing.

"They look like the guys who attacked the house we were in!" Carley's finger flew to her lips.

"You and Gary are always –"

"Fuckin' bandits." Andy growled, peeking up at them.

"Calm down," said the second bandit. "Your paranoia is pissing everyone off!"

"Who are they?" Lee whispered to Andy.

"Shh. Fuckin' assholes is who they are."

"There's only two of them." Carley said, cocking her gun.

"Oh no there's…"

"Yeah, and you know what? We ate it! All of it! What are you gonna fucking do about it?"

"Don't worry, Danny and I got you covered if somethin' happens… but let's just wait this out and hope they move on."

"FUCK YOU!" yelled the bandit in the ski mask. He brought his enormous foot up and kicked the other man in the chest, before shooting him, right through his skull.

Travis gasped and covered his eyes in horror as the blood splattered through the air.

"FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!" the ski mask bandit shot the other's body again… and again. "FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!"

"Jesus!" Carley whispered from behind a tree.

The ski mask bandit began walking away, muttering and said, "Asshole."

No one said a single thing.  
"The world out here has gone to shit." Danny remarked, sighing. "Come on, let's get to the dairy, where it's safe."

The dairy had taken about thirty minutes to get to from that area in the forest.

The electric fence looked thin and weak, yet dangerous at the same time as they walked past it. The dairy, while looking like it had seen better days, was beautiful, at least when Lee compared it to the motor inn.

"Here it is. St. John family dairy!"

Andy stopped and pointed at the electric fence. "Ya'll can see how we've kept the place so safe." The wire sounded like a buzzing bee.

"Wow. The fence keeps them out?" Mark asked as they all continued to walk up the path to the house.

"You betcha!" Andy laughed. "They fry like bugs in a zapper!" Lee chuckled slightly.

"We're pushing 4000 volts through that thing, with generators and amps!" As they reached the gate, Carley remarked, "I'm going to assume that's a lot."

"I don't know if it's safe for the kids. Clementine, Duck, and Summer, not Travis. Clementine… she's smart enough not to touch these things, but Duck isn't the brightest bulb in the pack, and I don't know about Summer."

Travis shook her head. "Just tell her not to touch the fence or anything. She'll listen… well she'd better."

Andy nodded. "Don't worry about the kids. As long as you remind them not to touch it, they should be okay. But always keep an eye on them. Ya never know what could happen. We haven't had any accidents, at least for humans. We had a couple of stupid crows that landed on it last week."

"That was a _good _meal." Danny moaned, rubbing his stomach. Lee didn't even want to comment on this. He had just met Danny, but he was already starting to creep him out.

_Note to self: tell the kids to stay away from him. _

Sure, it seemed rude, and Andy seemed like a nice guy, but with Danny, Lee didn't know what to think. The last few months granted the group to a lot of creepy people. And none of them had good intentions.

"This place looks untouched." Carley remarked, jerking Lee from his train of thought. "You'd never know the rest of the world is in ruins."

"It's worth protectin', hence all the juice."

The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a woman walking down from the house, carrying a basket. She looked to be around Larry's age, and she was about Katjaa's build, with dark red hair and a bit of a tanned face. This must have been Andy and Danny's mother.

"I thought I saw ya'll with company comin' the drive!" she spoke in a sugary sweet voice, with a bit of southern mixed in with it.

"Guys, this here's our momma." Andy introduced.

"I'm Brenda St. John, welcome to the St. John dairy."

Lee's eyes flicked down to the basket Brenda was holding.

"This here's Lee. He's been livin' down at that old motel, round the way."

"They got a few more friends, stayin' at the old motel." Danny pointed out to Brenda.

"Oh my goodness!" She started, in shock. "That place is extremely vulnerable. Have you got someone with survival experience to lead your group?"

"We all work together. Plus, we've got plenty of people with military experience." Lee informed her, referring to Lilly, Mark, and Larry.

"Well that's good to hear. That motel ain't the safest place." She continued on. "Now that ya'll are here, we'll make sure you're safe and comfortable." There was just one more thing on Lee's mind.

"Does… that offer apply to the rest of us?"

"We're all incredibly hungry!" Carley blurted out, seemingly without thinking.

"These are for y'all. Baked fresh this mornin'." Inside the basket were fluffy, golden biscuits.

"Amazing…" Carley said to them, mesmerized. Danny smiled.

"Yeah, you can't get stuff like that anymore. Not without a cow for milk and butter, that's for sure."

Brenda nodded. "Hopefully, Maybelle will make it through the bout of whatever she's got and be with us for a good long while."

"Your cow is sick? What's she –" But Mark interrupted Lee.

"We have a vet, Katjaa! We could bring her here! We can help you folks out."

"A vet!" Brenda repeated, shocked and happy. "Oh, my! Our prayers have been answered!" Lee didn't want to crush Brenda's spirits by pointing out that Katjaa had never actually worked with horses or cattle, only dogs and cats.

"The whole group could come here! … For the day, I mean."

Brenda thought for a moment. "Well, how about this: y'all go get your vet friend and I'll prepare some dinner. A big feast for all you hungry souls! It'll be nice to have some folks to help out around here, again. Danny, why don't you come help me in the kitchen?" Danny looked at her like she was crazy, but unwillingly walked towards the house with Brenda.

"Why don't I head back with the food and round everyone up for the trip back here?" Carley asked, looking the other way.

"Why don't you take someone with you?" Andy suggested, nodding to Travis. "Remember, those roads can be dangerous." He frowned.

"I think I can handle myself." Carley replied, feeling a bit embarrassed. "But… I guess you're probably right. Travis, doing want to come back with me? You can come back later, obviously. I need some back up in case something happens."

"Okay then. Summer's going to be excited. She likes open spaces. The other two will like it, too."

"Take this," Mark said to Carley, handing his gun to her.

"Thanks Mark. Take care of yourself, Lee. See you in a bit." And with that, Carley and Travis left the dairy.

"Mark, Lee, why don't you take a look around. Once you get settled in, I could use some help securing the perimeter."

"Is there a problem?" Lee asked. This wasn't good if something was broken down or something was missing. It wouldn't be safe at all.

"Sometimes, the dead get tangled in the fence before they fry and end up knockin' over a post. It'd be a big help if you two could walk the perimeter. You can learn a lil somethin' about our fence. I'm gonna go top off the generators before they run dry. Come get me when you're ready." Andy turned around and left, walking towards the fence.

"You betcha." Mark turned to Lee. "This place is incredible! It's got food! And that fence… oh man that fence! If we play our cards right, this might turn out to be a place where we can stay! So how do _you _want to play this?"

Lee shook his head. "Before we can _think _about bringing the others here to stay, we need to figure out if this place is as safe as they say." Mark nodded.

"Right. Obviously they think it's safe, but is it safe enough for the kids? I noticed a broken swing over there. Not a big deal, but maybe there's other things not working that we just can't see yet."

Lee agreed. "And checking the fence perimeter sounds like a decent way to get a good look at their defenses." Mark kept a straight face.

"Alright, I'll keep my eyes open and you find out what you can from Andy." Mark left, leaving Lee to do what he needed to do.

Lee closed the farm gate and watched as Mark examined the fence.

The first thing he went over to was the broken swing.

"To bad it's broken!" Lee called over to Andy, who was standing over the generator. "I'll bet Clementine and Duck and Summer would have loved something like this to play on."

"Hah. Kids used to like that old swing even more than the tour sometimes!"  
"I'll bet!"

After a moment of silence, Lee asked, "Mind if I fix it?"

Andy shrugged. "Sure, that'd be great. Momma sure does appreciate you all helping out." Lee turned back around to the swing.

"Looks like it just needs a new board for the seat and some rope. Make it safe for Clem, Duck, and Summer, and let the St. Johns know we can pull our weight around here."

Lee wandered up to the porch and opened up a box. Inside was a thick rope that was perfect for the swing.

On the side of the house was a certificate an several ribbons taped to the paneling.

"This dairy must have won a lot of ribbons in it's day."

"This place," said a voice behind him. "Was my daddy's life. It meant everything to him." Andy smiled.

"Y'know, when he first bought this place, it was a single story house!"

"Is that right?" Lee laughed at Andy's tone.

"After us kids were born, he insisted on adding a second floor. Said they had to have room as many babies as they could have! …Momma was done after Dan."

"Hah. My folks stopped after two as well." Andy sighed.

"Then one day, the world changed. Now this place is all we have left of daddy. That's why we take such good care of it, and why we want to share it with good folks like yourselves."

Lee nodded and Andy turned to get back to work.

* * *

"Lee!" Andy called, watching as Lee and Mark entered the yard. Mark's shoulder was pierced with a sharp, wooden arrow from what could have been a crossbow. "What's wrong?"

"The electric fence came on! Some people started attacking from the woods! And then we got trapped between them and the fence!"

Danny came running from the house.

"HOLY SHIT! Are you okay?!"

"I… I heard Mark yell and thought y'all were givin' me the 'all clear'. Man, I am real sorry."

"Oh my lord!" called Brenda from the house. "What happened to you sweetheart?!"

Andy turned around furiously. "It was those bastards in the woods momma…"

"Yeah…" Mark groaned. "I'll be alright once it's out, but, goddamn it hurts!" He was still hunched over, grasping his shoulder.

"Hey y'all!" came a voice.

Clementine, Duck, Kenny, Katjaa, Travis, Summer, Lilly and Larry were all coming up the path.

"Mark!" Katjaa exclaimed. "Oh my god, what happened?!"

"He got shot with an arrow!" Lee informed her.

"Christ!" Lilly shouted. "Are you going to be okay?" Mark was swaying on his feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I should just… pull it out…"

"Oh no honey, c'mon. Brenda's got you. C'mon inside now. We'll have it all sorted out." She beaconed for Katjaa to come along, and took Mark up to the farmhouse.

"Well, you must be the vet…"

Larry shouted at Lee, "What kind of shit is this?"

"We ran into some people on the way up here, bandits I guess. I think it was them that attacked us."

"They gave us a lot of problems in the beginning, killed a bunch of our farmhands. We were able to get them to stop by makin' a deal." Kenny narrowed his eyes.

"You knew about these people!?"

"Food for protection," Danny began. "Not like we had much of a choice, but they _did _stop hassilin' us."

Lilly hadn't said a word, but judging by her facial expression (which also made her look a bit constipated), she was holding in anger. Much more than Kenny, that was for sure.

"God dammit! Carley said this place was locked down tight!" Larry had a point. It wasn't as safe as they had originally thought it would be. Reality was knocking at their front door.

"Maybe it isn't as safe here as we thought." Andy shook his head.

"Look, we're sorry! We've never had them screw with us like this! Not since we started givin' 'em food!" He turned to Kenny. "Listen, we may have had an agreement with those people, but we will NOT stand for this shit!"

"Ain't no way we're gonna let those sons o' bitches get away with this!"

"You know where these assholes are?" Kenny demanded angrily. Despite Kenny's tone, Danny still seemed quite calm.

"They're hard to pin down, but I think I know where at least one of their camps are." He looked over at Lee. "When you're ready to go out that bandit camp, come find us." Both turned and headed their separate ways. Almost immediately, Lilly spoke.

"Bandits? Are you serious? Lee, this place isn't safe! We can't stay here!" Kenny looked at her like she had just run around naked.

"Not safe?! This place is a hell of a lot safer than that motor inn! I think all of us and our guns can handle a couple of punks with bows and arrows!" Kenny looked back at Lee.

"What we need to do is find a way to get out here to stay. Take this place over if we have to!"

Larry chuckled dangerously. "Whoa, cool your jets there, Rambo. These are nice people. Let's not do anything that'll get us thrown out before we eat." Once again, Larry had a point.

"I'm gonna head out and help Dan deal with these bandits. You guys should try to make friends with Andy and Brenda while I'm gone."

"Well that's easy. I've got charm coming out of my ass."

"Yeah… that's… real charming dad." Lee had just noticed Carley wasn't with them.

"Where's Carley?" he asked Lilly.

"Since Carley ate the food on the way to get us, she volunteered to stay behind and watch the motor inn until we get back. Travis told her he'd bring her something. That kid is weird." A hint of a smile appeared on Lilly's face. Lee tried not to laugh.

"Hey, I remembered seeing kids in your group, so I went ahead and fixed that swing while you were out. Hope you kids like swings!" Clementine's smile warmed Lee's heart.

"A swing! I love swings! Just like at my tree house! C'mon, Duck!"

"Why don't you kids go and play on the swing, huh?" Kenny grinned at his son.

"Yeah!" Duck shouted excitedly, and he and Clementine took off.

"You wanna swing, Trav? I want a turn." Summer said, taking a hold of Travis's sleeve. "Please? Come on!" Travis gave her the smallest of smiles, then the two began to walk over to the swing.

"Thanks," Lee told Andy sincerely.

"Anytime. We're lookin' out for ya!" and with that, Andy returned to the house.

* * *

**Please do not forget to leave a review, if you're going to favorite. :)**


	4. Jolene's Tent

**Welp, here's another chapter. Don't forget to review, favorite, and follow if you enjoyed this so far. I appreciate any feedback I would get, but flames are not appreciated. Thank you very much for reading. :)**

**I do not own The Walking Dead. **

* * *

Lee walked over to where the kids were swinging. Duck was on there at the moment, being pushed by Kenny, while Clem, Travis, and Summer waited by a rock. Clem's head was following the swing. Back and forth, back and forth.

Lee kneeled down to her level.

"Hey, Clem, do you like the swing?" Clem smiled.

"Yeah! It's fun!" Lee smiled.

"Be sure to tell Andy 'thank you', alright?" he told her. Clem smiled and nodded.

"Oh… and keep your distance from Danny. I don't know if we can trust him yet. He's really starting to creep me out. Don't tell him I said that, 'kay sweet pea?" Clem nodded again. "Good."

"Will you push me on the swing?" Clem asked hopefully. Lee looked at her excited face.

"Sure, I'll be happy too." Clem's eyes lit up with excitement. He stood up.

"Mind if Clementine takes a turn?" Lee asked Kenny.

"Alright Duck," Kenny told his son. "Let's let Clementine have a try for a bit." Duck looked disappointed.

"Do I have to?"

"Yes, Duck, you have to. I'll push you later, after Clementine and Summer have had a turn. Alright?" Duck huffed.

"…Okay." Duck hopped off quickly and sat down on a tree stump next to Summer, who gave him a tiny smile. He gave her a playful look, which exited his face as soon as he noticed the huge amount of faded and dried blood on her pajamas.

Clem sat down on the swing and Lee gave her a push.

"What do you think of the dairy?" It was the only thing he could really think to say. If he hadn't said it, they would've just been having an awkward silence, and that would be worse than the first time he had really tried to get to know her.

"It's pretty. It reminds me of how things used to look before."

"Yeah it does…"

"Do you think things will ever be back to how they were?" Lee looked at the curly haired girl. What could he tell an innocent little girl? It wasn't like he could tell her the cold hard truth, that he _didn't _think the world was going to get back to normal, because he really didn't.

"Yeah," he began. "I'm not sure when, but one day, things have to get back to normal."

Clem smiled and swung her legs. "That's good. I hope it's soon." Lee nodded. Maybe the world would one day come to peace, again. That day might not be soon, but maybe it would be someday. The walkers were just piles of flesh.

"Me too."

* * *

Lee walked out of the gate leading to the barn.

"Lee?" said a small voice behind him. He turned to see Summer, shuffling her feet.

"You and that man are going out to the forest, right?" Lee nodded, glancing at her. Her small eyes were darting around, and her head followed, as though she didn't want to be overheard.

"Yeah. Why?"

"I can't find my toy bunny. I keep losing her. Travis said if I lost her again, we'd leave her. But I don't want to. Her name's Gabby and she's kinda grayish. Can you look for her?"

"Sure, I'll keep an eye out." Lee was already looking for Clementine's hat, so adding a toy rabbit shouldn't be too hard.

"Thanks."

Lee continued looking around the area. Kenny had told him to find out what he could, both before and during the time he and Danny would be looking for the bandits. That was what he would do.

He looked at the hay bales. They could be used as cover from arrows or any other bandit tools (except bullets, he reminded himself.) if that became a problem.  
He peered at the barn, and looked up at the house.

"I suppose we could sleep in here if there's not enough room in the house…" Lee said to himself, thinking. He doubted it would be necessary, but if they didn't trust the group, they might not let them sleep in the house.

Who knows.

He wandered around, and finally came to a stop at a patio. A gazebo rested their, right next a bench. Larry appeared to be sleeping on the bench, and Lilly was leaning on the railing of the gazebo.

Lilly didn't seem to notice him as he looked at the small building. It was quaint, but didn't seem to offer much in the way of protection.

Lilly looked up and Lee looked back at her.

"Lee, oh my god, I'm so glad you guys didn't get killed out there! Do you think Mark will be okay?" It seemed like this scared the woman more than anyone else. Her usually accusing brown eyes were full of fear and concern, something Lee rarely saw in her.

"Wish I knew. But I think he's in good hands now." Without missing a beat, Lilly replied, her voice still quite concerned.

"Yeah? It's not too bad?"

"He'll be fine!" shouted a harsh voice. Larry seemed to have been awake, but with his eyes closed. "I've seen guys go through worse."

Trying to change the subject, Lee asked her how she felt about leaving the Motor Inn.

"It's a welcome change of scenery." Larry answered for his daughter. At least he was happy, Lee thought. Now he just had to make everyone else happy.

"Ugh… I dunno. If we'd just stayed where we are, Mark wouldn't have gotten hurt, you wouldn't have almost been killed, and we wouldn't have to deal with the bandits."

"I… take it you and Kenny didn't exactly make up on the way over here?" Lee only really said this to distract her from the prospect of the dairy cons.

"I tried to see things his way, having a wife and kid and all. But gambling your family's life is pretty stupid if you ask me." This was going a bit far. Lee knew Kenny just wanted what was best for Duck and Katjaa. Besides, she had Larry, but then again, Larry was a full grown, 300 pound Army man, not a 10 year old boy or 40 something year old woman who didn't know how to shoot.

Noticing Lee zoning out, she stopped for a moment and said, "Hey." Lee looked up and she continued on. "Thanks for backing me up this morning, at the motel. I know I came down on you guys pretty hard, but you do agree with the way I'm running things, right?" Lee grinned slightly. Lilly was a good leader, she just had a lot of pressure put on her shoulders. Lee probably would have been the same way if he were in charge, and Kenny likely would act similarly.

"You're a good leader, Lilly. Kenny's too emotional, but his intentions are in the right place. Still, it'd be best for all of us if you two could try to work together once in a while." Lilly looked visibly ashamed and seemed to have found her sallow hands extremely interesting. She huffed and shook her head.

"Hey, uh, can I talk to you in private for a second?" Lee asked, intending to talk about Larry.

"Okay…" She stepped out of the gazebo and headed to the white picket fence to talk to him.

"It's been three months," Lee started. "And your dad still treats me like I'm some sort of asshole." Lilly barely reacted.

"Yeah? Well don't expect _that _to change. That's just how he is." There was one question Lee was wondering about.

"Does he treat you like that, too?"

"Look, my dad can be an ass sometimes, I know that. But he's not a bad guy. He just… he's got a lot of pain." She had a devastated look on her face, as though she was thinking about an excruciatingly painful memory. "He's been through so much. And lost… pretty much everything. And it's hardened him, you know? Yeah, he's bitter and hateful, but that's all just to protect himself. And me. I'm… well I'm all he's got left. And that goes both ways. So, yeah, he's probably going to keep treating you like crap, but that's just because he has one thing left in the world to care about. So don't judge him."

She then hastily added, "And don't judge me either, for sticking by his side. He's my dad, and I love him." Without giving Lee a chance to say anything else, Lilly returned to the gazebo. Lee followed her, not done with the conversation.

"Do you think our little arrangement with them was a good idea?"

"Little late to be askin' that now, don't you think?" Larry asked, refusing to look at him.

"Dad's right." Lilly told Lee. "Let's just… wait for dinner, and then if Mark is feeling up to it, we leave. I don't want to push our luck here."

"Now, now, let's not be hasty."

"I'm gonna go check things out."

"Just don't be too nosy. I've met people like these, and they're the kind that are pretty protective of their privacy." Lilly pointed out. Larry seemed to think it was the best time to speak.

"Yeah, and we don't need you pokin' your nose where it don't belong, and getting us thrown out onto our asses."

* * *

Lee walked up the hill to the farmhouse, knowing full well that he and the brothers were going to have to face the bandits in just a few minutes...

"Fellas." Lee said, nodding to Andy and Danny.

"How are ya feelin', Lee? I'm really sorry you almost got killed out there. We should have told you how dangerous it was."  
"No shit."

"You saw what they did to your buddy," Danny began, looking strangely sociopathic. "Nobody's safe here, until we start to fight back."

"How?"

"The two of us should go out and do some recon, then we'll all mount up for some revenge."

"_Hell yeah._"

"Who the fuck _are _these people in the woods?"

"We don't know." said Andy. "We think some of 'em used to work up at the big box up the way."

"Save Lots." Danny corrected.

"Yeah. Anyway, they're nutty as hell. And they get mad when they're hungry."

"So, are ya ready to head out there and find their camp?"

"Yeah, it'll be a good opportunity to find out a bit more about what we're up against. _Let's do this_."

As Lee and Danny set off, Lee looked back and saw Clementine watching them. He knew he would be lucky. He had been since he'd met her on that crappy day, just three months before.

* * *

"Keep an eye out for a blue and white hat and a gray stuffed rabbit, Danny. If you can."

"Why? You lose 'em?" Danny joked.

"No, but Clementine's lost her hat and Summer dropped her rabbit somewhere."

Danny shook his head. "See anything?"

Lee kept his gun close to him. "Not yet." He responded. All her could see were trees… just… endless trees.

"I know it's around here. It's gotta be close." They stopped suddenly and Lee bent down to examine several cups that were left on the ground. He moved it with his gun. It was a soup can.

He stood up and they continued walking.

"Here." Lee said suddenly, stopping.

There, right in front of them, was what appeared to be a camp.

"Oh shit! You found it?!" Lee signaled for him to be quiet and they both began to sneak towards it.

Lee stood up quickly and pointed his gun at it. He looked around for any sign of human (or walker) life. Nope, no movement.

He squatted down and slowly moved towards it. There was a reddish colored tent, a table with several boxes, and some chairs.

At the same time, both he and Danny pointed their guns at the tent. "You see anybody?" Danny asked a moment later, squinting.

"Stay on your guard."

Danny nodded and stepped forward, into the camp. "Watch my back, Lee." he commanded. "I'm gonna check out the tent."

Lee followed him out of the bushes, and Danny slowly began to approach the tent. Lee pointed his gun at the tent, just in case.

Danny made his way (ever so slowly) to the tent and poked the tip of his gun through the small opening. He grinned sadistically and forced it open, looking for a person, apparently. It was empty. He shook his head and shrugged.

"Clear." Lee lowered his gun, as did Danny.

"This camp's too small. It can't be their main base." Lee nodded.

"That's what I was thinking." Danny sighed.

"Take a look around anyway. There's probably some shit around here they stole from us."

Lee began to examine the boxes. Several of them read _SAVE LOTS. _He looked out in the distance. Still no movement.

"What's in the boxes?" Danny asked suspiciously, turning around.

"There… all from Save Lots."  
"The first few days, they told folks to gather to the Save Lots by the interstate." Then, he said, "Anything worth taking?" Lee shook his head, and noticed a few more that read _ST. JOHN FAMILY DAIRY _on the side of the box.

"There are boxes from the dairy!" he called over. Danny turned around with an expression of disbelief, but his voice revealed nothing.

"Prob'ly the food we've been givin' 'em. Fuckers crossed the line." he responded, shaking his head.

Lee continued over to other boxes, and pushed one aside. What seemed to be a small camcorder was laying on the table. He picked it up, and placed it in his pocket.

"What'd you find?" Danny asked, turning around.

"A video camera," Lee explained, pulling it back out of his pocket.

"Lemme see that." Danny walked over to the table. Lee played with a few of the buttons, to see if it would come on.

"Battery's dead, though." he informed the other man.

"Oh." said Danny. And then for some reason, he added, "Good." He looked down embarrassed for a moment and then continued looking around. "What else they got over here? Let's see if we can find anything useful, and then get a move on." Once again, Lee pocketed the camera.

Danny smirked. "I see ya handle that gun I lent ya pretty well. You a hunter?"

Lee shook his head. "No, but Lilly keeps us all on a regular training schedule."

"Lilly, huh? Sounds like _she's _runnin' this 'democracy' of yours." Ignoring this, Lee continued to look around the camp, and reached the tent.

He leaned into it. There were two sleeping bags, and adult one, and a kid sized one.

Lee kneeled down inside of it, and began to look around inside.

There was a photo, of a woman and young girl who didn't look any older than Clementine or Summer, hugging and smiling. _And laughing_.

Lee looked up and noticed something laying on the child sized sleeping bag. A small, gray, stuffed rabbit.

Lee reached for the rabbit, wondering if the child in the photo had picked it up.

"Aww, man." On the tag, it read: _Property of Summer L. Paul_ in an adult's handwriting. Lee had to wonder how it ended up in the camp, but maybe the little girl from the photograph had picked it up and brought it back. Then, the man noticed a slight bump in the child's sleeping bag. He cautiously pulled it back, hoping it wasn't something like a dead rat, and marveled at the object underneath. _  
_

It was Clementine's hat.

"…the hell?"

"Don't you fuckin' move!" a woman's voice called out.

"Shit!" Danny called, alarmed, as he turned around and pointed the gun at the woman.

She looked like she had just taken a mud bath. Her hair stuck up as though she'd been electrocuted, and (however dirty she was) it was obvious she was the woman from the photograph. The girl was nowhere to be seen. Her choice of weapon seemed to be a crossbow.

"_Put your guns down now._" Lee picked up his gun and ran out of the tent, pointing it at her, despite her warnings.

"I ain't goin' back! Tell 'em Jolene ain't goin' back!" the woman, Jolene's crossbow was pointed at Lee, after she'd moved it away from Danny.

"Hey! We had a deal! No shootin' as long as we gave you food! What the fuck happened?"

"You had a deal with THEM! I ain't THEM!" she then shook her head at Danny. "I know YOU! I know what you are, and I know what you do!"

"You don't know me!"

"Steal my shit! Steal EVERYTHING from me!"

"We had a deal! You broke it first!"

Lee worked up the courage to talk. The initial shock had worn off.

"Why are you alone up here? What _happened _to you?"

"Well," said the slightly loony woman. "That's a hell of a question, mister! They told me I'd be safe with them, men who lived here. But it weren't safe! Not for me, and not for my girl!"

* * *

At the dairy, Clementine was sitting on the stump near the swing next to Summer and Travis while Duck was swinging.

"Are you guys brother and sister?" she asked, trying to see if there was any familial resemblance between the two kids. There wasn't any that she could see - their hair colors were completely different (Travis's hair was dark and straight, Summer's was dirty blondish/very light brown and messy), they were two different builds, and Travis was olive skinned, while Summer was paler. And neither of them had the same eye color.

"Nope. I didn't have a sister. Or a brother..." Travis concluded. He was watching Duck swing on the swing (for the umpteenth time) and began zoning out, seemingly mesmerized by the back - and - forth motions of the object.

"Me either," Clementine said quietly. "My mom said that if she had another baby, she'd probably get really stressed out."

"I had a sister. She was older than me and she's deader than a biter." Summer said in a seemingly proud voice. "Her name was Annabelle, and she had red hair. Not like that fat lady, though. Annie was pretty."

Travis gave her an awkward look. "Sunny, we talked about not calling other people fat. You didn't call your aunt fat, did you? And Rose was 7 months pregnant. Now, THAT is big."

Suddenly, Summer's demeanor changed. She looked upset - _very _upset.

Clementine scooted away from her friend. "You're aunt died? What happened to your mom and dad?"

Summer didn't answer. Instead, she got off of the stump and simply walked off.

"They're dead." Travis answered for her. "Died three years ago in a car accident. Excuse me -" he got up and followed Summer to where she was going.

* * *

**Please leave a review! Hope this wasn't cruddy. :)**


	5. Someone's Coming to Dinner

**Hi everybody! Clover is here with another 2 chapters! Well, I'm glad to give out these two chapters, and I may upload a third one, because I just want to get this story caught up the way it was before. So, try to enjoy my crummy writing and drop a review if you have the chance. Happy readings! **

**I do not own The Walking Dead. **

* * *

"God dammit!" Danny cried out, seemingly triumphantly. Lee had just watched the woman, who identified herself as Jolene, fall to the ground as shocking, dark red blood spilled from the side of her head. He looked at her in horror. Her eyes still remained open, and loathing.

Lee didn't even think before he shouted, "You straight up _murdered _that woman!" He was so shocked, that was the first thing that popped into his head.

"Hardly," Danny scoffed, turning towards the other man. "She had a crossbow pointed at my forehead!"

Lee sighed. Danny continued. "It's a clean shot, though… right through that bitch's forehead. Don't ya think I shot pretty good?"

"So that's… it? Are we heading back to the dairy?"

"I dunno where the hell they are if they're not here. What a waste of time. We should get back. It's not a good idea to stomp through the woods lookin' for 'em." Lee nodded. "Once they see this, they'll get the message."

* * *

"Then screw it up for everyone, why don't you!"

Lee had been right in the middle of a conversation with Brenda when the angry voice of Lilly interrupted them. There, by the barn, was Lilly and Kenny... arguing. Again.

"Oh calm down, little miss priss! I'll do it myself!" Kenny turned around and stalked off into the barn. Lilly turned in the opposite direction to go who knows where.

"Sheesh. What's goin' on with them?" Lee asked the red haired woman, wondering how long they'd been arguing for.

"Squabbling, looks like it. There's a lot of tension with you guys, ain't there?" Lee nodded.

"They have different ideas on how we should run the group. If they don't stop, this whole thing's gonna fall apart." Brenda shook her head sadly.

"Nah, it's just… tough times. Everyone's hungry and people get stir crazy when their stomachs hit empty." Lee shook his head. He highly doubted this was the case, but they were arguing more than usual.

"And Lee, don't worry about the bandits. We're all real sorry about the violence y'all have seen, but you're safe here. Don't worry." She gave him a feeble smile.

"I think I'll go see what's goin' on. Thanks." Brenda nodded cheerfully.

"Don't wander too far. Dinner'll be ready before you know it. And thank your friend Katjaa for me, will you? She, the kids, and that teenager are all in the barn with Maybelle. That woman is a lifesaver!"

Lee walked down the path of the house, and walked through the wooden gate. He spotted Clementine by the door of the barn. She gave him a wave, smiled, and closed the barn door.

Lee looked up at the sky as he walked to the barn. It was gloomy, gray. It would probably rain later. That wouldn't be good.

He stopped at the generator and heard the whirring inside. _I'm glad Andy knows how to fix it. I'm clueless._

Lee continued to the barn and opened up the heavy door with a loud creak. Inside, Clem was standing next to Maybelle, Duck was sitting on the other side of her, Katjaa was situated on a stool in the corner, Summer was sitting by Clem's side, and Andy was sitting on another stool by one of the stalls. Travis was standing on the other side of the barn (_Probably thinks he's too cool to play with the kids_, Lee thought, smiling) watching them

Duck leaned forward and stroked her head. Maybelle snorted and shook her head. Clem smiled. Summer laughed softly and poked at Maybelle's neck. Katjaa said something about being careful not to poke in certain places.

Clem appeared to be a bit nervous around Maybelle. She probably just wasn't used to being around animals.

"It's okay, Clementine. You can pet her if you like," Clem looked over to Lee for confirmation.

"It's okay, go ahead." The young girl worked up the courage and slowly stepped forward. She stroked the cow's large, wide back.

"Woah…" she uttered, astounded. "Katjaa says Maybelle might have her baby tonight!"

"We'll see." Something by Duck caught Lee's eye.

"What's this thing?" he asked, crouching down by Duck. It was soft brown, and it appeared to be extremely heavy.

"Daddy says it's called a salt lick." Duck replied, barely turning around.

"Yeah," said Clem hastily. "But don't lick it. It's gross." Lee smirked and leaned on one of the stall doors.

"Did you lick it?"

Clementine gave him her guiltiest looking face and said in a plain voice, "… I don't know."

"Yes." Summer giggled, pointing at it. "She did this!" Summer went over to the salt lick and licked it.

"Blec! Ewww! Gross!" Travis laughed, then tried to stop himself.

"I told you guys not to do that. I know best, I mean my dad _was Special Forces_." Summer rolled her blue eyes, wiping her tongue on her pajama shirt.

Lee walked over to Andy and said, "Danny and I met this woman in the woods. She seemed to know your brother." Andy looked back at Maybelle.

"Uh, yeah… He… he probably talks a little more than he oughta."

"How's the cow?" Lee asked, directing the attention to Maybelle. Maybelle looked like a fat… well, cow. There wasn't any other way to put it. She was probably the largest cow (including bulls) Lee had ever seen. If she was this large without a calf in her womb, Lee would have given her the _Guinness Book of World Records _award for "Fattest Cow to not be Pregnant".

"She's doing better, now that we've got a doc on the case. Mama really appreciates it. Maybelle's pretty much hers." Andy smiled and looked over to Maybelle, Katjaa, and the kids.

"Trav! Come feel how soft Maybelle's fur is!" Summer called softly, beaconing for her brother figure to come over. Travis shook his head. He backed up with a nervous look on his face. "I don't… I don't like animals like that…" He noticed that Lee looked at him questioningly. "I got kicked in the you - know - what by my mom's horse, Anne - Marie, when I was 8... I heard my step dad telling her to kick harder next time..."

"Mister, when do ya think we'll eat?" Travis asked, looking up again. "The jerky wasn't exactly a filler."

"Hungry, kid? Don't worry, it'll be soon. An hour tops. Mama's cookin' up some good grub." Clem's amber eyes lit up. Lee wouldn't blame her if she was more excited for dinner than a cure for the apocalypse. He felt almost the exact same way. Duck and Summer both looked like Christmas had come early.

"Thanks."

"Yup. Oh, quick question. Are you and that girl…Carley, right? Are you two together?" Lee was caught off guard by this. He liked Carley as a friend, nothing else. If anything, he was into…

"No, no. We're not together. I don't like Carley in that way." Andy smirked and continued.

"What about you and the other one, Lilly? Larry's been tellin' Mama how you won't leave her alone. Thinks ya like her. He won't shut up about how much that bothers him, no offense." Lee remembered how Larry had asked him a similar question three months before, and how he'd asked for Lee's opinion on Lilly. Larry didn't seem to happy to hear a convict thought his daughter (who he treated like she was 15, rather than 35, which really annoyed both of them) was the least bit attractive. Lee didn't want that to impair him when it came to someone he liked, but at the same time, Clementine was his first priority, not romance. That could come later.

"None taken. He's been giving _me _an earful about how he'll snap my neck if I attempt to make a move on her." Lee directed his attention to the curly haired little girl standing near him.

"How do you like that cow, Clem?" Maybelle moved a bit and snorted.

"She's pretty!" Clem grinned and looked back down at the large creature. Suddenly, Lee remembered that he'd found the hat, as well as the rabbit.

"Here, Clementine," he pulled the scrunched up baseball cap out of his jacket pocket and gave it to her.

"My hat! You found it!" She took it from him excitedly and smoothed it out, before shoving it onto her curly black mane of hair that had grown at least an inch over the last few months. "I knew you would! You said you would!"

Lee grabbed the rabbit out of his pocket and gave it back to Summer.

"Gabby! You found her!" Travis did a double take on it. "Thanks, Lee!"

"You _lost _Gabby?! Again?" Summer hugged her rabbit to her chest and stuck her tongue out.

"My aunt gave her to me, so stuff it, 'tard!"

"Summer!" Katjaa said in a condescending tone. "Don't say -"

"Shut it, Summer Lynn. Don't talk to me like that!" Travis shouted, his face turning red. Maybelle was looking up, alarmed, and began to shuffle, as though she was trying to stand.

"Kid, you're scarin' the cow!" Andy said to Travis. "Calm yourselves, kids."

"Anyway… did you give your hat to anyone?" Lee asked, remembering how it had been in Jolene's tent.

"No." Clem said softly.

"Did you see any strangers around the Motor Inn who might've taken it?"

"No. Why?"

Lee shook his head. "It's probably nothin'. Just let me know if you ever see anything like that."

"Okay. I will." Then, Clem decided it was the best time to change the subject. "Hey, Lee? Do you think you'll ever have kids?"

"I'd like to, one day, Clem. Maybe a sweet little girl, like you. If I don't, I'll have you." Clem smiled, touched by the complement.

"That's nice. You'd make a good daddy." Lee smiled. "Thanks for finding my hat."

"You're welcome, sweet pea."

"Do you want to pet the cow with me?"

"Nah, but you go on ahead."

Duck sniffed the air. "Ew. It smells funny in here.

"Like doody?"

"Like shit! Right, Lee?" Katjaa looked from Clem to Lee with one of her looks.

"Don't… don't use swear words, okay?" Clem looked down ashamed.

"Okay."

"*cough* Hypocrite *cough*." Lee turned around to see Travis with a smug look on his face.

"You're lucky there are witnesses. I'd smack that look right off your face."

* * *

Lee wandered around the barn for a moment, peering in the stalls, and then laid his eyes on yet another set of doors.

"You found it, too?" said a thick southern voice behind him. Kenny appeared by his side a moment later. He was looking at a set of locks that held the door together.

"Lee," Kenny whispered. "They're hidin' something. You know, behind this door." He continued on, lowering his voice until it was barely audible. "I got a quick look. They got boxes o' stuff, and something metal and sharp."

"Don't get paranoid." That was truthfully the last thing they needed, for someone to get paranoid. It could be quite destructive.

"It's my _job _to be paranoid, Lee. I've got my whole family out on this farm. What about you? What about Clem?"

"I'll protect her, no matter what." That was all that mattered, that Clem was safe. Lee wanted to protect her. He felt paternal around her; like she was his own. Samantha never wanted children (in fact, she disliked them, and shut him down whenever he brought the idea of having a kid up), but that was all Lee wanted to feel complete. Clem _was _like his family, and he would protect her as such.

Kenny nodded. "Look, that guy with Katjaa. What's – his – name. He locked it up _real tight _the second we came in. I KNOW I hear a noise back there. I gotta know what the hell it is."

"What do you want me to do, Ken? Get a brick and bust it open?"

"My point is, we gotta know for sure. Go find a hammer and I'll have it open in a second. You back me up in case those farmers come runnin'.

Lee sighed. There was no way that plan could go right. "Hang on, man. Think this through. You smash the lock and what if it turns you're wrong? You just fucked your chance to get a good meal in those kids you're tryin' to protect. Use your head, Kenny."

"All right, professor," Kenny spat bitterly. "What'd _you _have in mind?"

"Let me have a look and deal with it first." The locks were screwed in tight, and the slide in wasn't budging.

"Hey, Lee. You know how to pick a lock, right?"

"No! Why would you say that?" Kenny looked at him sheepishly.

"You're… you know… urban?"

"Oh… you are NOT sayin' what I think you're sayin'!"

"Jesus, man," Kenny whispered. "I'm from Florida. Crazy shit just comes out my mouth sometimes. Sorry!"

Lee was indifferent. He knew Kenny was probably just joking, however rude it was.

"Hm…"

"What?"

Lee pointed to the screws that were implanted into the metal. "See those screws? Instead of breakin' that padlock, we can just take off the assembly, have a peek, and then replace it all again, like nothing happened." Kenny seemed to think this was a great plan.

"Sounds like you've got a plan. Time to put it in action. I'll hang around and keep an eye on the guy with the cow."

"Andy."

"Shit, I thought that was Danny! Whatever." Suddenly, the one voice Lee _didn't _want to hear said something.

"Can I help either of you with something?" Lee quickly found an excuse.

"Just checkin' out the barn. Neither of us have ever been to a dairy before."

"Okay. Just don't roam around without me or Dan. The farm can be a dangerous place." Lee didn't know what Andy meant by this, since he had told the entire group how _safe _it was.

"You know, with the bandits and all. Sorry about your friend." Andy looked uneasy at the door. "Hey… uh, do me a favor. Don't fuck around with the door. Just, you know. Mama gets nervous."

"Andrew, I need your help, again. It's Maybelle!" Katjaa called.

"Comin', doc." Andy retreated back to the stool. Lee looked at Kenny with a "what now" type of look.

Kenny left Lee's side and leaned up against one of the stable doors. Now, all Lee had to do was get Andy out of the barn and find something to open it with.

* * *

After atleast 20 minutes, Lee managed to open up the barn door. Behind it was something that would haunt his nightmares for the rest of his life.

Blood. Blades. Sharp things that looked like they belonged in a horror movie, or one of those old cartoons where villains tried to saw people right down the middle. It was disgusting. Terrifying, even. What. The. Fuck.

Just then, a deep, southern accent shook Lee out of his thoughts.

"Boy, didn't you hear the bell? Dinner's ready." Lee turned to see Andy smirking. Lee was already panicking because he didn't know what the hell was wrong with these people and why they had things like this. Unless it was a cow slaughterhouse. That would make a bit more sense.

"Andy, what is this? I came in here and it was just… just wide open like this. What the hell is with all the blood?"

Andy looked back behind him. It was hard to tell whether or not Lee was to believed.

"Danny must've opened it. That's what we do with the animals we kill, y'know, like deer? Mama won't let Dan and I do that in the house. We've never bothered to clean it. There's not really a reason to."

"I suppose that _does _make sense."

"Yeah. Oh, and was anyone with you, just now?" Andy asked, looking nervous.

"No."

"Not Doc, or that boy?"

"No, Travis, Katjaa, and the kids went in the house."

"Oh… good." So then, Lee began his way out of the barn, and as he was leaving, he heard Andy shut the door tightly and mutter, "Fuckin' meddlers." Andy followed him out a minute later, and together (Lee pretended he didn't hear what Andy said) they set off for the large farmhouse.

* * *

"Oh… Brenda!" Lee heard Larry say in a flirtatious tone.

"Biscuits!" came Duck's voice.

"This looks _good_, Mrs. St. John!" Lee heard one of the girls say (it was so loud he could barely tell who's voice was who's).

Lilly came out of the restroom and gave Lee a look, before heading into the dining room.

"Excuse the mess. We had to block the back door after one of them things got in and got upstairs." Noticing Lee's uneasy look, Andy added, "Don't worry. That was a while ago, and they ain't been back since then." Lee entered the dining room to see the group and Danny situated at a long table. Clem sat in between Andy and Larry and said, "I saved you a seat!"

"Now, everyone settle down and I'll go get the meal. Ooh… this is a _delight_!" Brenda squealed, clenching her fists.

"I could very seriously eat a horse!" Kenny boasted.

"I bet I can eat more than that, dad!" Duck teased his father.  
"Don't make yourself sick, Ducky."

Lee stood in the doorway, and noticed Mark was still absent.

"Where's Mark?"

Brenda placed a hand on her hip. "Now don't you worry about him. I brought some food up before y'all came in. Poor guy's still not feelin' well. I don't blame him, honestly."

Lee nodded slowly in response. He was starting to get a vibe that something was going on.

"Mind if I wash my hands before I eat?"

Brenda nodded enthusiastically. "The bathroom's right outside in the hall. And be sure to get under your nails. You've been muckin' around in the dirt all day." Lee nodded again, not being able to think of anything else to say.

He turned and walked straight over to the bathroom.

_It was right next to the stairs._

Maybe they wouldn't mind if Lee just checked on Mark… just a quick peek in to see if he was alright.

So he quietly climbed the stairs, trying not to make a single sound. Lee made it upstairs, only making a single squeak that the rumbling thunder outside covered up.

He saw a closet with a red tube leading to it. So, naturally, Lee opened up the closet. Inside the closet were normal things, like towels, extra candles, and…

Medical supplies and Morphine? Why did they need so much?

The cord that had been leading to the closet was poking through a small hole, about the size of a fingernail, in the wall.

"What the hell?"

Lee walked over to the bedroom door, wondering if perhaps Mark was asleep in there.

The bed was made and empty. There was no Mark to be told. There was a bookcase, and there was light poking out of the bottom of it.

"Where _are_ you?"

Lee went over to the side of the bookcase and pushed it, as hard as he could, and a moment later, there was a door. Right there. It was likely a bathroom door. Lee heard groaning. He didn't even want to know what it was, but at the same time, his curiosity and meddling instincts were going haywire.

Lee held his breath and shakily opened up the door.

"Lee…" said a voice.

* * *

Duck bit into a piece of the meat. It tasted funny.

"What kind of sauce is this?" Lilly asked. "It tastes…"

"Saucy, Lillith? Saucy?" Larry chuckled at Lilly's expression at her full name.

"Dad... I go by Lilly for a reason."

"I'm sure you do." Larry chuckled.

Brenda looked over to Lilly. "I think it's a pretty name. But I prefer Lillian."

"Yeah," Lilly answered in a bitter tone. "Me, too."_  
_

Clem looked at her food. The "sauce" on the meat looked an awful lot like blood. But maybe Brenda had done that on purpose. Oh well.

Clem picked up a piece of the meat and put it in her mouth.

"SPIT THAT OUT!" cried a voice. Lee was standing in the doorway. It was too late, Clem already swallowed the meat.

"Lee, Jesus man! Did you find something?" Kenny asked putting his fork down.

"Sit your ass down, Lee." Larry told him, looking fondly over at Brenda. "This lady made you a meal!" Lee was huffing like he had just run a mile.

Lilly nodded. "Yeah. What's gotten into you? Are you alright?"

"He could use some goddamn manners!" Larry told Brenda in response to something she said.

"It didn't have to be this way…" Lee heard Danny sigh.

"This woman is fucking insane!" the man roared, pointing a finger. Brenda barely looked fazed at the insult, but Larry looked offended for his "lady friend".

"Brenda made you a home cooked meal, you ungrateful shit! Show some goddamn respect!"

"Thank you, Larry."

"You don't even have the _decency _to take a hand out when you're offered one! It just makes me sick! It _really _does!"

Brenda seemed to have the sense to get Larry to quiet down. "That's… that's enough, Larry."

"Ken… maybe we shouldn't." Katjaa pointed out, looking around for potential escape routes.

"THIS WOMAN IS RUNNING A HUMAN SLAUGHTERHOUSE! YOU! ARE! EATING! MARK'S! LEGS!"

Travis looked like he might throw up what little was in his stomach.

Duck didn't even seem to notice they were talking. He was gulping down the meat like he had never eaten anything. Katjaa grabbed the plate suddenly and gave him an admonishing look.

"Mom! I was eating that!"

"They're picking us off to trade as meat!" Larry shook his head, still not believing what Lee was telling him.

"You're out of your skull!"

"MARK IS UPSTAIRS, RIGHT NOW WITH NO LEGS!" Lee turned to Brenda, and with a pleading tone, he asked, "Please, Brenda. Tell me he's NOT being eaten right now!" The entire table went quiet as Brenda sat there, debating with herself.

"It's… true."

Danny didn't even bother to look up. "Everything could 'o turned out okay for you folks."

"He would've died anyway! We've gotta think about _living_!" Clem was staring at Andy as he said this. Lee could tell by her facial expression that was clearly thinking the same thing he was thinking: These people were crazy.

"Settle down, honey." Brenda admonished her eldest son in a dangerous voice that sent shivers up Lee's spine. Then, she turned towards the rest of the group to explain her thinking.

"Growin' up in rural Georgia, I was taught not to waste. That's how _I _was raised and how I raised my boys. Now you've got monsters roamin' around that do nothin' _but _eat people! And for what? To rot until they _eat some more!"_

Larry looked at his food disgusted and pushed it away.

"Uh… I'm gonna puke…" Lilly muttered, looking away.  
"Andy is right." said Brenda. "We go after folks who gonna die anyways, one way or another."

"L-like us?" Summer asked quietly, as Travis placed his arm around her.

"Yeah, girlie. _Like y'all._" Danny muttered, looking up at each and every one of them.

"Clementine, run!" Lee yelled at the small girl. Clem looked around panicked.

"No one's goin' anywhere right now!" Andy shouted, pulling out a gun. Danny did the same.

"We got lots of use for y'all, right here."

Larry was in some kind of shock. He was staring at Brenda, sputtering.

"What the what?! The FUCKING WHAT?!" his hands were shaking and he made rude gestures towards Brenda. Still, Brenda had a calm face on.

"Put your guns down!" Lilly yelled at both brothers. "We're walking OUT!"

"You don't go near my fucking family!" Kenny screamed along with Lilly.

"Mommy… I don't wanna die! Mommy, what did I _eat_?" Duck asked hysterically.

"Travis! Travis! Are we gonna get our parts chopped off, too?"

"Everyone! Everyone!" Lee shouted over the commotion. "Everything will be okay, just stay calm!"

Clem was shaking her head in fear. "Lee… Lee!" All of the sudden, Andy leaned forward and grabbed her by her bushy black hair.  
"AHH! LEE!"

"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU, GODDAMMIT!" Lee ran towards her, only to be stopped by Danny's gun, Charlotte, as he called it.

Suddenly, there was a thumping of something falling down the stairs. Everyone stopped and stared.

Lee looked back at the group. Each of them had open mouths.

"PLLLLEEEEEEEEAAAAASSEEEE!" cried a voice.

_Mark._

"Someone…" Mark was dragging himself across the floor, leaving trails of thick, brown and red blood behind him.

"Ugh!" Larry cried out when he saw him. Summer let out a ripe, high pitched scream. Travis quickly covered her mouth and she buried her face in his jacket. "Don't. Look."

Everybody gasped. Katjaa pulled Duck back, and covered his eyes quickly. Lee looked over at Clementine. She shook her head.

"Clem –"

_BAM!_

Lee fell to the ground with a thump as Danny hit him with Charlotte. They all stared for about 2 seconds, before Lilly grabbed her steak knife and flung it towards Andy's head.

Andy ducked and let go of Clementine, who ran towards Katjaa. The knife his the wall and then fell to the ground. Kenny looked around, confused and horrified.

"Why? Why did it come to this?" No one answered. All of the children were shaking. Clementine and Summer were both crying.

"What the hell, Brenda! What… what the fuck!?" Larry was still sputtering incoherently. Danny grabbed Lee by his collar and lifted him up. He put his fully loaded Charlotte up against Lee's temple.

"Let's go! Everybody out!" Each group member who wasn't already standing slowly stood up and followed him. He dragged Lee's body behind him.  
They all walked past Mark. He was lying on his back, eyes wide and glassy. There was no movement, but the look on his face very clearly said, "I'm so sorry."

Danny and Andy led the group out to the barn. They passed Maybelle, who was flipped on her side, mooing in pain.

Andy opened up the set of doors. Almost everyone gasped. They couldn't believe that these "people" had all of this... It was sickening.

Duck let out a shriek as Andy snatched him up by his shirt. He was squirming, trying to get out of the man's arm.

"Duck! You asshole!" Kenny yelled, trying to run to his son. Danny seized him by the waist and forced him back. Katjaa had been snatched by her hair. She didn't put up any fight, knowing that if she did, they'd hurt her baby...

"Kenny! Just go! We'll be fine!" Katjaa protested as Andy pinned her to his chest by her throat. Danny continued to pull Kenny back into the room, while Kenny could do nothing but watch as his wife and child were forced out of the barn.

Danny opened a door none had seen, and shoved Travis and Summer first, then the others in there. Danny slammed the door behind them, and with a "CLICK!" they were all pretty sure they'd been locked in. Lee's body had been thrown haphazardly into the room.

It was a meat locker, they all noticed immediately. Larry turned around quickly and ran to the door. He jiggled the knob, but it wouldn't open. "YOU SONS OF BITCHES!" he screamed, banging on the door.

"This isn't happening..." Lilly said to herself. "This is _not _happening..."

Travis leaned his forehead against the wall and broke down completely, not even caring that Larry told him to "get his shit together and quit acting like a wimp". He started banging his head against the wall.

"Is Lee okay?" Clementine asked him, taking his hand. Travis stopped banging his head and said quietly, "He's not dead, Clem." He resumed this a moment later.

They were all disgusted of what had just happened. Kenny was freaking out, Larry was beating on the door, screaming his head off, Lilly was throwing up in the corner, Summer seemed to be having some sort of panic attack, and Clem was stock still next to Lee.

Clem noticed that Lee was currently stirring. Travis stopped banging his head on the wall long enough to say, "I told you he wasn't dead.", and then resume what he was doing before.

"Lee!" Lee sat up and hugged his surrogate daughter tight. She looked him straight in the eye.

"It was Mark… They made us eat _Mark_! Are we going to turn into walkers?" Lee shook his head.

"No, no. It doesn't work like that, sweet pea."

"I can't believe you let us _eat _a person!" Larry roared, not turning around.

"Dad… please!" Lilly whispered weakly from the corner.

"Larry, I didn't _tell _you to eat him! I'm sorry, but I can't redo it!" Larry looked at him with an expression full of hate.

"Well maybe if you hadn't dragged your feet, we wouldn't have done it!"

"Dad, shut up…"Lilly coughed. "It's not the time…"

"That evil _fucker _let us EAT the meat! If he had gotten down sooner, we wouldn't have!"

"Stay calm, Dad. We'll deal with it later!"

Lee directed his attention back to Clem. "They didn't hurt you, right, Clem?" Clem shook her head.

"OPEN UP!" Larry beat on the door, once again, much harder this time. So hard, in fact, that Lee was surprised that he didn't break his hand or wrist.

"Lee! Those psychos have my family, and we're stuck in a damn meat locker!" Kenny was approaching him fast, and he did _not _look happy. Lee just wanted to know what happened while he was out. All he remembered was being hit by Danny's gun, and then hearing people yelling. That was it.

"We've gotta get the fuck out of here!"

"_This _goddamn thumb-sucker was the one who brought us here!" Larry yelled back at Kenny. He pointed at Lee accusingly.

"WILL YOU ALL JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!?" Kenny and Lilly screamed in unison. Usually it was Lee yelling that at the two of them. It was a "nice" change.

"I'm scared…" Clem whispered, walking over to Travis and Summer; the latter was no longer banging his head on the wall.  
"Don't be, it's gonna be okay!" Lee assured her. "I'll find us a way out…"

"You're worse than the walkers!"

"Dad, please!"

Lee had the other three kids looking for loose boards or panel, when he noticed the large cart of salt licks.

"Salt licks. God they're heavy."

"Think we could heave them through the door?"

"Nah." The salt lick would probably just shatter.

"I'll… I'll break down the… damn door down!" Lilly looked up.

"Dad, you can't get –"

But Larry wasn't listening. He grabbed his heart and his eyes began to shut. "Ah… Uh…"

"Easy…" Lilly told him quietly.

"Arrrrgg. Oh, God."

"Dad?!"

Then, Larry collapsed on the ground. Lilly grabbed his head and stood above him.

"No… no! Dad! Wake up! Come on!" Travis looked at Lee, who looked at Kenny. Kenny looked over at Larry.

"Oh my God! He's stopped breathing!" She pressed down on his chest. "I think he had a heart attack!"

Kenny didn't move. "Shit… is he dead?"

"He's not dead! Somebody, help me!"

"Fuuuuuck…" Kenny moaned. "If he's dead…"

Lilly wouldn't take this for an answer. "FUCK! He's NOT dead!" Kenny looked over to his friend.

"You know what has to happen, Lee." Lee looked over at him like he was crazy. "You saw that poor bastard back at the motel, and how fast he turned!"

"What are you saying?!" Lilly demanded, looking up from Larry.

"Lilly, I'm sorry, I truly am, but in a few moments, we're going to be trapped in a meat locker with a 6 foot, four, 300 pound, seriously pissed off dead guy."

"FUCK YOU! We can bring him back!" She looked over at Lee. "Lee! Help me with this! PLEASE!"

"We'll mourn him later –"

"HE'S NOT DEAD!"

"Remember what Travis said…"

"HOW DID _I _GET SUCKED INTO THIS!?"

And so it began. Lee leaned over Larry quickly.

"Is he breathing at all?"

"No!"

"LEE!" Kenny yelled from over by the salt licks. How could he do this now?

* * *

**Welp, drop me a review if you have the chance. :)**


	6. Escape

**Hope this turns out okay. ;)**

* * *

It was minutes later that Larry lay prepped up against the wall. He was breathing, but just barely. Lilly kept her eye on Kenny whose hand rested on the cart of salt licks. Travis had his eye on Summer; the girl had gone bat shit insane when Kenny mentioned that Larry would "come back and eat their faces". Travis knew she had to have sustained some sort brain injury in that car crash 3 years prior that she'd been in, because he had never seen a kid who freaked out this easily.

Clem had pointed out to Lee that the air duct could be an escape route, but he wasn't able to unscrew the screws. Then, he had an idea.

"Larry, do you still have 60 cents in your pocket?" Larry's coins could very seriously their only way out of the locker.

"Yes… and some old lint… why do need it?" Larry looked like he close to falling asleep.

"Did you find a way out?" Kenny asked, abandoning the 2 ton cart. He joined Lee and Travis by the air duct and took a look at it.

"We just need something to unscrew this. Larry, please tell me you still have those coins." Larry nodded, not arguing.

"Lilly, they're in my left pocket – other left." Lilly pulled out two quarters and a dime, before handing them to Lee.

"Here." And then, as she passed, she whispered, "Thank you so much…" in his ear. Lee nodded before examining the sizes of the coins. One of the quarters should be strong enough.

Lee took the first screw off, then the second, and the third and fourth. He was able to take it off slowly, and then set it on the ground.

"Lee, I don't think any of us can fit in there." Travis pointed. "Unless we were…" he gazed over at the two girls. Summer shook her head.

"You're crazy, Trav! I knew Mr. David was right!" Ignoring this, Travis pointed out to Lee that one of the girls could fit through the air duct.

"Clem…" Lee said slowly, turning his head to the thin girl. "Do you think you could crawl through the duct?"  
"It probably leads to the backroom, where we came in at," Kenny explained, remembering the slaughterhouse in vivid detail… it was just sickening.

"…"

"You don't have to, I understand -"

"I'll do it…" Clem said in a reluctant tone.

"We're gettin' out o' here?" Larry slurred from the corner. "Great."

Lee lifted Clem onto his shoulders and she climbed into the air duct. "What do I do when I get out?"

"Try to see if you can open the door, and _be careful_." Clementine nodded cautiously at her guardian's tone - this was probably one of the most dangerous things she would be doing, especially if either of the brothers were in the room; she'd be screwed if that happened.

As Clem crawled through the duct, thumping could be heard, hopefully not loud enough to alert Brenda or the brothers. Lee tried to remember what happened… but all he remembered was being hit, and then hearing the yelling, probably from the rest of the group as they were forced into the meat locker.

"What happened while I was out?" he asked Kenny, who was leaning up against the wall.

Kenny lifted an eyebrow. "Oh, not much. My family was just fuckin' kidnapped, Travis had a meltdown, Summer had motherfucking panic attack, and guess what!? We're in a FUCKING MEAT LOCKER!"

"Sorry I asked..." Lee said quietly, putting his hands up in surrender.

Suddenly, there was a loud slam and what sounded like a yelp from Clementine.

_Fuck no…_

Every gaze in the room was focused on the door, cautiously waiting for someone to open it – whether it was Clem or one of the brothers with a gun. There was a _click _and the door opened slowly. Clem was standing at the door, looking shaken up.

"Are you okay?" Lee whispered. "Did anyone see you?"

"No," Clem whispered back, "But that man is outside. The one who grabbed me!"

Kenny rushed out. "Wait for us, Ken!" Kenny rolled his eyes and slowly walked into the room that the duct led to.

"Lilly, maybe you two should stay in here with the kids… just in case this all goes to hell."

"Fine. I'll have your back if anything happens. I'll keep an eye out. _Thanks_."

"You're welcome."

"_Yeah… this is good._" came Kenny's voice from the room.

"He's gonna get us all killed…"

* * *

Several minutes later, Lee and Kenny were currently hiding in one of the cow stalls, trying to get out at the right time. Lee had a sharp tool (a hay hook, he guessed) hidden in his jacket. It was not comfortable, but it had to be hidden.

"Well quite sittin' out in the damn rain, you weirdo. Mama says we can't keep that many folks alive and not expect trouble." came Andy's disdainful voice. Lee slowly opened the stall door a crack and saw Andy standing near the barn door, talking to Danny. "Pick one to keep and then kill the rest."

"That lil' blonde girl ain't bad lookin'. Neither's the one with the hat. We could always put em' in a room with a walker and see who comes out."

"Dan, no."

"They're talkin' about killing us!" Lee whispered urgently, suddenly feeling sick to his stomach. These "people", if you could even call them that, were absolutely bat shit insane.

"No shit." Kenny remarked sarcastically, cocking his eyebrow.

"We could take them out, together." Then, Maybelle's pain filled moos could be heard.

"How?"

"He doesn't know we're out." How they had managed to get this far, Lee had no idea. "He's gotta walk past _us _to get to the locker. We can take him out when his back is to us. Got it?" Kenny nodded slowly, his eyes flicking over to the door with a nervous look on his face.

"Fine. See what he's doing now. Seriously. Lee, focus. Where's Danny?"

Lee slowly opened the stall door a crack, wondering the same thing. Danny was about 20 feet away, setting what appeared to be a bear trap… shit. He closed it slowly and stealthily.

"What's he doing now?" piped Kenny.

"That fucker is sick, Ken. He thinks this is a game!"

"See where he is now…"

So Lee opened up the door. He was staring straight down the black as night barrel of Charlotte. With the speed of a cheetah, Lee grabbed the gun and shoved it away, at the same time Danny pulled the small trigger. Lee instinctively grabbed his throbbing ear as Danny regained his footing. The other man backed away, looking as though he was about to reload his gun, when Lee pulled the hay hook out of his jacket, and sank it into his shoulder.

Danny let out a shout, in both surprise and pain. He swung Charlotte around and hit Lee in the head, once again. Lee went flying backwards near the door. Where Kenny was, he had no idea. Lee stood up and Danny pulled the hay hook out of his shoulder, and then pointed the rifle.

Someone slammed their fist into Danny's face, while another person slammed a sickle into Danny's shoulder. Lee turned to see Kenny with his fist barred and Lilly with a bloody sickle. Danny lost his footing with another bash from Kenny and Lilly, and tumbled into his own open bear trap. The metal clamps sunk into his ankle, trapping him and sealing his fate, as there was no release latch.

At least, now they knew who set the trap that the teacher (who Summer mentioned was named David) got caught in.

"_Nooooo!_" came a woman's cry of fear. Katjaa. Kenny looked at Lee and then bolted out of the barn, leaving Lee, Lilly, and their "prisoner". Lee slowly reached for the pitchfork sticking out of the hay bale. He pulled it out and positioned it towards Danny.

Danny groaned in pain. "You see? You understand now, don't you? _You can have me_!"

Lee stared at him for a minute.

"Shit face." Lilly grumbled. Danny shot her a scowl and muttered what sounded like "bitch".

Danny looked back at Lee. "It's how the world works now!" He said this as though he was doing nothing but explaining a science project. "You give part of yourself so that other can feed themselves and live!"

"I should fucking kill you right now." Lilly said with both calmness and hatred in her voice. Lee still hadn't said anything.

"No one was talking to you!" Danny sneered. He didn't seem to realize that Lee was already ticked off enough, and this just made him even more upset.

"MARK NEVER _VOLUNTEERED _TO BE FOOD!" Lee yelled, pushing the pitchfork closer to the man's neck, but not close enough to kill him.

"You gotta keep me alive! If you kill me, the meat will get tainted! You can't eat it!"

"YOU'RE ALREADY TAINTED!"

"You ain't gonna kill me," Danny teased. "Just like you didn't kill Jolene!" Lee threw the pitchfork into the hay bale behind him.

"This is _not _how the world works now! I'm not sinking down to your level!" And Lee was satisfied with this.

Lilly picked up the gun off of the floor and pointed it towards Danny. "I could kill you right now, and no one would know."

"Lilly? Still here." Lee pointed out, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I know that. I could still kill him."

Danny let out a harsh laugh. "You ain't gonna kill, ugly. You ain't got the balls!"

Lilly looked over to Lee and sighed. "I'm not sinking down to his level. He can't hurt anyone, I guess."

The door opened, and Clementine and Summer came out, followed by Larry and Travis. Larry was leaning on Travis, who looked like he was going to collapse and was making strangling motions while pointing to Larry.

"Here, dad, come here," Lilly came over to the two and Larry leaned most of his weight on her. Lee looked out of the door to see that it was raining buckets outside and that it was almost night.

"Go. Travis and I will cover you." said Lilly quietly, nodding to the farmhouse in the distance. Lee had no idea how she would do that with a probably empty gun and a 300 pound man leaning on her shoulder.

"Just stay here with your dad and the kids. Keep them safe." To Clementine, Lee said, "I'll be right back."

Lee snuck out of the barn, and shouted, "Kenny!" No answer. Lightning flashed frightfully in the distant corn field and looked like it had just made popcorn.

Nothing moved. Then, something did. One of the corn stalks. A walker's outline was moving slowly. Then it fell with almost no noise. Carley stuck her head out.

"Carley!"

"Lee?" She came closer to the electric fence, but obviously not that close. "You guys have been gone _way _to long! Is everybody okay?"

Lee didn't know exactly how he was going to explain the fact that the St. Johns were cannibals, Duck and Katjaa were who knew where, Larry had a heart attack, and Mark was now legless.

"We need your help!" Lee said back urgently, looking around for any sign of Kenny.

"Yeah. I figured something was up when you guys didn't come back! How can I help?"

Lee was breathing fast. "They chopped off Mark's legs and tried to feed them to us! Then they locked us up in a meat locker, Larry had a heart attack – he's fine though – and I don't even know where the hell Duck, Katjaa, and Kenny!"

"Fuck!" Carley managed to get out. "Is everyone else alright? Clementine and the others?"

"They're fine. They're in the barn with Danny. Don't worry - he's caught in a bear trap."

"Fuck…"

* * *

It was too much to forget. These thoughts ran through everyone's minds as they walked back to the motel. It had stopped raining (thankfully) and the air was peaceful. Larry was able to walk alright and no longer needed Lilly. Summer was shaking and hadn't said a thing (she and Duck had probably eaten the most of the meat, next to Lilly) since the meat locker. Kenny was groaning in pain because of his gunshot wound "to the gut", as he put it. Clementine had taken Lee's hand, almost afraid that she was going to have him taken away from her.

Carley, on the other hand, had been the only group member who hadn't been there (Lee was told that Travis was supposed to stay with her, but apparently it had been Carley who ate all the bread, not him, so he said it wasn't fair that he wouldn't get food too. That and Summer threw a mini tantrum or something, saying that she wouldn't go if he couldn't) and the disgusting thoughts went through her head like you couldn't imagine. Andy and Danny had seemed like genuinely nice men, and she was ashamed to admit it, but she'd actually found Andy kind of attractive. How could that have resulted in the death of Mark and near death of almost everyone else?

"Hey… Lee." Carley began, feeling a bit stupid. "I'd say 'I'm sorry for leaving the motel unattended' but… you know."

"I'm just glad you showed up when you did." Lee told her quietly, looking back. "If you hadn't taken that shot at Andy, we might not have gotten out of there."

"I'm surprised that Andy didn't yell, 'My ear! My beautiful ear!', because that's exactly what _I _would've said." Travis piped up, trying to (and failing to) make the group laugh.

"Keep talking, and you're sleeping out in the rain tonight. Seriously, Travis. This is _not the time for jokes_."

"Were they… really… killing people? For _food_?"  
Lee nodded solemnly. "Yeah. And I think almost everyone ate some."

"Did Clementine -?"

"Yeah… I didn't stop her fast enough. I can't leave her alone, Carley. This fucking world… It's hiding unspeakable shit at every turn." Carley reached for something in her pocket.

"Katjaa managed to grab this while she was in the house. Said it was with your stuff." It was the camera that he'd found at Jolene's camp, along with Clementine's hat and Summer's rabbit.

"Yeah… I found while I was looking for the people who shot Mark. Do you want it?" Carley shook her head. "Why don't you keep it? Sometimes it helps to have something you can document your thoughts on."

"Errrnn." Kenny groaned, stopping. He ran his fingers over his gunshot wound.

"How are you doing?" Katjaa asked gently, peering at her struggling husband.

"I'll be fine. I'm just… not as young as I used to be." He looked over at Duck who looked like he was about to laugh at the comment. He noticed Lee walking towards him. "Hon, why don't you go on ahead and give me and Lee a second?" Katjaa nodded, understanding that they probably needed to talk in private. She led Duck away.

"You know… back in the meat locker… I seriously thought he was dead. I just… I didn't think I could drop that salt lick on his head." Lee nodded.

"I get it. I didn't know what was gonna happen."

"Hey… Dad? What's that noise?" Duck asked cautiously, looking around. Lee could hear some sort of beeping in the distance – no, close.

"Sounds like a car…" Kenny told the group, looking around for one.

And it _did _end up being a car. A car that was full of food and basic medicine like Morphine, Ibuprofen, and Advil. And everyone but Lee, Lilly, Carley, and the two girls wanted to take the stuff, because according to Kenny, it was "abandoned".

"Maybe they're coming back!" said Clem, looking into the deep forests.

"They have girls clothes, mister! What if they have another little girl! I don't want to her go without clothes!" Summer pointed out to Kenny and Larry, who both seemed to agree that this find was theirs.

Eventually, Carley gave in, and decided to search for things like flashlights or other stuff she might need. She even found a few packs of batteries.

"There were some batteries in one of those boxes. I thought they might work in your camcorder." Carley pulled another pack out of her pocket and handed it to Clementine. "You can have some too, for your walkie talkie."

"Batteries, huh?" Lee joked, remembering the time that she had tried to operate a radio with the batteries in backwards. "Think you can handle those?"

Carley's face reddened. "You're never gonna let me live that down, are you?" Lee shook his head and she handed him batteries.

"Thanks." Carley was looking at the camcorder.

"Oh God."

"What is it?" Lee asked, leaning over her shoulder to get a glimpse.

"You're gonna want to see this…" She showed him the camera.

"… Oh shit…"

There was a video that was directed at the motor inn. And it had some _very _useful information about the St. Johns and the bandits.

This was not good.

* * *

**Don't forget to leave a review, favorite, follow, and all that. :)**


	7. The Weeks Following

**I very much enjoyed doing the edits to this chapter, because I added in a cute (in my opinion) scene with the kids playing a "cops and robbers" type game, and I had fun typing it out. Drop me a review if you get a chance, and please enjoy the chapter!**

**I do not own The Walking Dead.**

* * *

The next few weeks following the St. John incident were quite tense. No one was getting a lot of sleep. Everyone was tired. Summer even fell asleep standing up once and didn't wake up for over an hour, and she stood for that amount of time. The only good thing was that no one was hungry; they had plenty of the food from the station wagon they'd found in the forest. Of course, Lilly was still determined to ration it, so that they wouldn't have another situation where they were running out of food to the point where most of the group was only eating two or three times a week. Kenny, of course, had a problem with this, and only agreed if each person could eat each day, rather than a few days a week. Lilly gave in after an hour of him pestering.

Lee found Travis and Summer different clothes to wear, and found out that both of them had been wearing the same things for 3 months straight. When Lee asked why, Travis said that he went to a year round school and had just gotten to school when they had to evacuate, whereas Summer had just been woken up and hadn't had time to change.

Lee, Kenny, and sometimes Carley or Lilly still went on runs in Macon to get food, or medicine, or things they could use, despite what they had.

Duck, lately, had been having some pretty nasty nightmares about Shawn Greene, and about the guilt he had for running over the teen's foot and causing his death, back at Hershel's farm. Kenny had tried to convince him that it wasn't his fault, but he wouldn't believe his father. Maybe Duck wasn't as "dumb" as they thought him to be. He knew that while it wasn't entirely his fault, he was still at fault for turning on the tractor. The walkers, however, weren't his fault.

Clementine had told Lee she could hear Summer talking in her sleep and crying out for a woman named Rose, saying that she was sorry for being such a coward, and that she wanted to see her again.

Of course, the children weren't the only ones having nightmares or trouble sleeping. Lilly didn't sleep well at night before they went to the dairy, and after, her sleeping condition only worsened. Lee wasn't any better himself.

Doug, that police officer, Sandra, that young woman who Glenn told him was named Irene, Shawn, Chet, Hans (the man who slept with Samantha), Mark, David, Jolene, Danny, Andy, Brenda, his brother Bud, his parents, hell, he even saw Summer's uncle, despite never actually meeting him. Samantha blamed the deaths on him, saying how everything was his fault. The St. Johns killed Mark because he had been foolish enough to trust him, David had died because they didn't get him to Katjaa fast enough, Bud and his parents died because Lee wasn't there. No matter what, Samantha said he was at fault.

The one time she wasn't there, Lee's guilt was.

_Doug had appeared before him, with half his face missing and his intestines torn out and spilled all over the floor – or what would have been a floor if there was one. They seemed to just be floating in the middle of nowhere; no beginning or end. It was just empty._

_"Nice to see you," Doug said casually, leaning on a nonexistent wall._

_"God, Doug! Don't sneak up on me in my dreams like that! Where's Samantha to tell me off like usual?" Lee asked in the same tone Doug had used._

_"It's her day off, so the Big Guy told me to fill in."_

_"Okay…" Suddenly, Doug's face changed from a smirk to a sad looking face._

_"Why'd you do it, Lee? Why'd you kill me?"_

_"Doug…"_

_"Be careful, Lee," Doug said, demeanor changing. He put his hand up in an obnoxious pose. "You could grow to enjoy killing. After what you did you me, and Andy. Hell, join up with Lilly and Carley, and you three could wipe out China."_

_Lee didn't say a thing._

_"You think you're this group's savior? You can't save anyone. Especially not that little girl who relies on you. Or Kenny's son, or that teen or that annoying girl who tags along with him. Nope, they're as good as dead. Especially Clementine. She should know her daddy figure is a coward. A useless, fucking, coward who can't do shit."_

_"I-I didn't kill you –"_

"LEE! Get up!" came Kenny's harsh voice. Lee woke from the nightmare and saw the older man standing over him, gun in hand. "Christ, you're worse than Larry. Get up. It's time for the drug store run." Lee got out of his bed and noticed Clementine watching him from the other bed, barely awake. The curtains were just barely open, but it was obvious it that it was quite earlier.

"Will you be okay?" Clementine asked, pulling her blanket up to her small chin. Lee nodded and rubbed one of his eyes.

"We'll be fine. Just try to go back to sleep for a little bit." Lee grabbed his gun from off the dresser, and he and Kenny exited the small motel room. Lilly was on watch, though she looked like she was struggling to stay awake.

"Are you guys going?" Kenny nodded.

"Try to stay awake, Sleeping Sallow." Lilly rolled her eyes at the insult to the current condition of her skin.

"Shut up, Super Mario. Just be careful." So then, Lee and Kenny set off to Lee's parents' drugstore.

It took almost an hour to get there. It actually looked empty. Maybe they would get lucky…

* * *

Clementine was drawing on the ground with the chalk, trying to write in the neatest handwriting she could. Duck was next to her, drawing random scribbles.

"Where's the pink chalk?" Duck asked, since he was trying to use every color they had for his "masterpiece".

"Summer's got it." Clementine answered back, continuing to write the names of the group. She was constantly scribbling out the names, unsure how to spell "Katjaa" and not sure how Carley and Lilly spelled their names. She'd seen Carley and Lilly spelled in at least 5 different ways each.

Duck looked over to see Summer stabbing the ground with the pink piece of chalk, leaving pink scuffs all around in a circle. Travis was speaking to her, trying to pry the chalk out her hand.

"Chalk isn't for stabbing, Sunny. Come on - _don't give me that look, Summer Lynn_!"

"Can I borrow the chalk?" Duck asked, holding his hand out. "I wanna use all the colors!" he gave her an excited grin.

Summer shrugged and rolled the chalk over to him. "Sure." Travis's shoulders sagged and he slapped his forehead.  
"Why didn't _I _think of that...? Just tell her that you're drawing... Stupid Trav."

Duck returned back to where he and Clementine were sitting and continued drawing the scribbles, until it was a giant, multicolored circle around him and Clem.

"See?" Duck asked, pointing to the circle. "It's our own fence! To protect us from the walkers!"

"We've got a fence, though." Clementine pointed out, writing down Duck's name along with her own and the other names.

"That won't hold! Look, there's a walker right there!" Duck pointed to Travis, then made a gun motion with his right hand. "BANG! BANG!" Travis grabbed his chest and dramatically fell down to the ground, making Summer burst out laughing.

"You've... you've killed me!" Travis gasped in a dramatically raspy voice. "I'm dead, Sunny!"

"You're not dead!" Summer laughed, holding her little stuffed rabbit to her chest. "He's still alive, Duck!"

"Blondie's right, Clem!" Duck shouted, grabbing Clementine's hand and pulling her towards Travis and Summer. Duck once again put his hand in a gun position and pointed it towards Travis's head. "BANG! BAAAAAAAANG!" Travis closed his eyes and made himself go limp.

"He's still not dead!" Summer shouted, as though she was confused as to why Duck's imaginary gun wasn't working on her brother figure. "Why isn't it working?"

"It's not real, Summer." Clementine informed her friend, taking her hand. "You need a real gun - like what Lilly has! - to kill someone for real." She nodded her head towards Lilly, who was gazing out into the forest, completely focused on it, with a rifle across her lap.

"Oooohh." Summer concluded, crossing her arms.

"Here, this'll kill him!" Duck yelled, pulling his foot back and -

"AWWWWW! YOU LITTLE FUUUUCKER...!" Travis screamed in pain, grabbing his crotch area after Duck kicked him there.

"Travis, don't make me wash your mouth out with soap!" Katjaa called from the other side of the lot. "What's going on?" she made her way over to the playing children and saw Travis laying on the ground in pain.

"Here, let me help you," she pulled Travis up to his feet, while Travis was still convulsing in pain. "What happened?"

"Sorry, mommy..." Duck trailed off, looking guilty. "I was just playing."

Katjaa looked at him confused for a moment, then back at Travis. She suddenly made a connection to _where _Travis was in pain, plus the guilty look on her young son's face. "You kicked him there, didn't you?"

"Yes ma'am." Katjaa sighed and shook her head in disappointed way.

"Tell him you're sorry, Kenny Jr."

"Sorry, Travis," Duck moaned. "For kicking you... down there."

* * *

Lee and Kenny came back from Macon an hour or two later than when they'd left, with several bottles of warm water, packs of crackers, and a bottle of Ibuprofen. After talking to Clementine quickly about some stickers Katjaa found, Lee and Kenny made their way towards Lilly's room. Lee gave the door a sharp knock. Lilly opened it, looking exhausted, as though she'd been asleep and wasn't happy to be woken up.

"Looks like we've got the kid on watch." Kenny started, looking at Travis who was focused intently on the forest.

"What'd you get?" Lilly asked, head aching. She rubbed one of her eyes irritably.

Kenny handed her the bag. "We might as well put up a sign that says '_the men are gone. Come and rape our women and children_'."

Lilly glared at the man, and then set the bag on her bed. "Oh, that's pleasant, shit head." Kenny ignored her.

"We're fine by the way."

"So…_ what did you get_?"

"A lot of stuff," Lee started, ignoring Lilly's and Kenny's statements. "Well… what was left. It's mainly crackers and Ibuprofen."

"Good. Anyway, nice work… It'll keep us going." She smiled a bit. "If we carry on like this, we'll get through the _winter _here." Kenny looked outraged.

"The winter? We'll freeze our asses off here!"

"Do _you _want to pile into an RV? Especially one that small?"

"I'll do whatever it takes to keep this group safe, and that includes piling into an RV!" And for the next two minutes Kenny and Lilly went back and forth about whether or not to leave.

"FINE!" Lilly finally yelled. "I give up. We'll go in that stupid RV!" Kenny was astonished that his arguments had actually worked against the woman he called "the she devil".

"Are you kidding me?"

"Do I look like -"

"No, no. I'll let everyone know. It's nearly finished anyway." And with that, he left the room. Lee looked over at Lilly. She closed her eyes and sat down on the bed.

"It was going to happen one way or another."

"I _know _that. I just… I don't think it's safe. I really don't." Lee closed the door and sat down next to Lilly, sighing.

"Why don't you think it's safe?"

"Do you want to pile into an RV in the middle of a forest? We won't have the safety of an enclose location and we'll constantly be on the run. I don't want to do that, especially with four children. And we get supplies from Macon and…" Lee stopped her, and laid a hand on her shoulder.

"I understand what you mean. It's easy to get medication for Larry, and we have a safe place. But think about the cons. The bandits are getting worse, the walkers are getting more plentiful… We could find another St. John dairy. Another family of cannibals or dangerous survivors nearby. You don't want anyone else to get hurt or killed, do you?"

"No…"

"Well, Kenny's telling the others… and I was thinking about taking Travis out to practice hunting and using a gun. He's pretty inexperienced with one."

"That's a good idea - get him trained now, so he can actually contribute." Lilly thought for a moment. "We could always teach the kids how to shoot, too Or use a knife."

"Really?" Lee asked, crossing his arms skeptically. "You think it's a good idea to give Duck or Summer a gun? I'd trust Clem not shoot someone, but I don't trust either of them." Lilly shrugged.

"I never said it was a _good_ idea, but it's practical. Besides, I learned when I was younger than Clementine. Why wouldn't they be capable of learning?"

Lee thought about what the woman was saying for a moment. She'd learned when she was younger than Clementine, but she'd had Larry, an Army man for a father, plus an Air Force mother, so it would've been natural that one of them taught her how to shoot. But Clementine, Duck, and Summer weren't military brats, they were all 10 years old or younger, and 2/3 of them were accident prone, not - very - bright children who probably were bound to accidentally shoot someone.

It was easier for Travis, because he understood the risk of playing with a gun and he was older.

"I guess we can think about it. But I'm gonna get Travis trained with the gun first."  
Lilly nodded in agreement. "Work our way down, age wise, I guess. Travis, Duck, then Clem, and then Summer. Sounds good to me." Then, the woman sighed.

"Was Macon _really _as bad as Kenny said it was? How was it?" she asked in a concerned tone.

Lee heaved a sigh and gulped. "It was worse. Completely overrun. The pharmacy was terrible... and..."

"What?"

"There was a girl. Maybe... 20 or something? She came running out a store with walkers chasing her. I was trying to shoot the walkers, but one of em' got her." Lee paused. "Kenny and I couldn't do anything, but... I guess she drew enough time for us to get the stuff from the pharmacy, but... Lilly, there's nothing left. Macon's lost."

* * *

"Kenny told us that Lilly finally gave in. I guess we're leaving tonight, according to Kenny. The RV's ready." Carley said to Lee, as they walked up the stairs to the balcony outside her room.

"Yeah. Lilly was talking about not wanting to go unless we were 100% sure Macon was lost. But it is, and she's not happy about it."

Carley shrugged. "She's just got a tough time letting go of things. And I guess she's kind of right. We're we gonna go?"

Lee racked his mind, trying to remember what Kenny wanted to do. "I think Kenny wants to go to Savannah and see if we can find a boat."

Carley gave Lee and skeptical look. "A boat? We're almost 4 months into a walker outbreak, and Kenny wants to go to Savannah, one of the most populated and crowded cities in Georgia to look for a _boat_?" Carley had a dumbfounded look on her face. Lee shrugged.

"Kenny thinks that we can get on a boat, since Savannah has a waterfront. I think he wants to see if we can find an island or something." Carley rolled her eyes. Then, her expression changed.

"There's another thing I wanted to talk to you about," Carley began again. "Larry told me about the whole senatorial thing. I think he thought that I didn't know, and I'd freak out and tell the rest of the group, because he hasn't told anyone else. Yet."

"That asshole…"

"Yeah, I know, and I think it should be _you _who tells the group. I think you should tell them so that they don't hear it from Larry. I can't hear him speak about you and not think it's going to be the next thing he says."

Lee's eyes widened. He knew what Carley was saying. She wanted him to tell the group on that day.

So Lee told them. Every group member. Kenny's response was to make a dirty joke about Lee touching kids – which Lee didn't find funny. Katjaa just seemed sad. Travis said, "Wow… I've never met a murderer before." in an impressed voice. Clementine brushed it off, remembering what Lee had said three months before in the office. Duck didn't seem to understand the concept, and just brushed it off in the same way Clem had. Summer seemed upset about it, but Travis assured her it was for a valid reason. Lilly already knew, to Lee's surprise. Larry had told her, thinking she liked him, which she did, to turn her off.

Afterwards, Lee came spoke to Travis about gun training, and he seemed quite eager to learn. They had decided that they'd set off to the forest, and see if they could find any deer or some kind of animal to eat before they left for Savannah.

* * *

Later, Lee found Travis a rifle to use, and just told him to keep his finger off the trigger.

"So... where does Kenny want to go?" Travis asked, remembering how excited Kenny seemed when he told them that they'd be going in the RV.

"Savannah. We're gonna find a boat."

"Oh."

"Alright, then. Do you see anything? Any animals?" Lee asked, scanning the area. Travis shook his head.

"Nope."

"Walkers?"

"Nope."

Just then, the brownish bushes rustled. Lee put his finger on the trigger of a smaller gun, similar to Carley's glock.

A tall, handsome buck trotted out of the bushes, looking around. Suddenly, Travis pointed the gun, and pulled the trigger, intending to impress his "teacher".

The shot missed, but it was earsplitting, and would probably bring more walkers than they could handle. Lee smacked Travis on the back of his head. The buck was gone.

"Don't ever do that again!" Travis rubbed the back of his head, and backed away. "Damn it, Travis! You're gonna bring walkers!" Sure enough, a lone walker came hobbling out of the trees… then another… and then 8 more.

"Fuck! Travis co -" Travis had backed up, and hadn't noticed a walker behind him. The walker grabbed him and sunk it's razor sharp teeth into his shoulder, tearing out a chunk of flesh. Travis screamed in agony, trying to push it away. Lee pulled out his gun again and shot it, and another. Travis fell to the ground in shock and pain, grabbing at his wound in disbelief. Lee threw the teen over his shoulder and took off running back to the motel, unaware of the 30 or 40 walkers that were following him.

* * *

Lee arrived back to the motel, and did a rather bad parkour (more of a tumble) over the dumpsters with Travis over his shoulder.

"FUCK!" he turned around and noticed the herd of walkers that had followed. Carley looked up, as did most of the others. Larry was awake and starred in disbelief.

"We need to go! _NOW_! Kenny! Get the RV started!" Kenny ran and after about 30 seconds got the RV started. Lilly was gathering the three boxes of supplies and shoved them in. Lee ran into the RV and laid Travis down on one of the seats – he didn't know how long the teen would take to turn – and grabbed a blanket from one of the compartments. He threw it over Travis's shoulder, know Summer was going to freak out. After about another minute, walkers had gotten through the barricade, and everyone was rushing into the RV. Then, Kenny stomped on the gas, and they were speeding through the wall, and then away from the motel.

* * *

**Okay, so I have an idea! I'll give you a quote from a movie and whoever guesses it correctly first (in a review) gets a virtual cookie! **

**Anyway, leave a review for the story if you have a chance.**

**Quote: **

**"Knock. Just knock. Why isn't she knocking? Do you think she knows how to knock?"**


	8. Fallen Embers

**I'm back! Well, I'm going to warn you that this chapter is not only a bit sad, but... there's an eye injury and I know how people get about those. So if you're squeamish, you might want to skip over the part with eye injury... **

**Anyway... Rebloxic gets a virtual cookie for guessing the movie the quote was from correctly. He/she was the only person who guessed. **

**Movie: Frozen**

**Who said it: Olaf**

* * *

Clementine's heart was beating… the walkers. There were _so many _of them! They were following them… oh God no… Summer was biting her nails, rocking in fear. She could sense something was wrong with Travis… _just not what_… Duck had sat down on Katjaa's lap, frightened by what had just happened. He thought that they were safe… Mom and Lilly had they were… Dad _was _right after all…

"What happened?" Lilly broke the silence after about five minutes of Kenny driving like nobody's business. Carley was breathing hard, eyes wide, petrified, in the same way the children were, which didn't happen often.

"Travis tried to shoot a buck, but the gunshot brought a bunch of walkers… Too many for us to handle. We tried to go back, but…"

"But… what?" Lee sighed and walked over to where Travis had fallen asleep. He pulled the blanket off of Travis and pulled him up so they could see what happened. Shocked gasps came from all over the RV. Summer's screams of horror reverberated off the metal walls. Her lip quivered, and she was gasping for air. About 5 seconds later, a 6 year old was laying on the floor of the RV in a dead faint.

"What happened?" Kenny and Katjaa asked from the front.  
"Travis was bitten. Happened when we were coming back…" Katjaa covered her mouth and closed her eyes. _Oh my God_…

Lee picked up Summer off the ground and set her on the seat next to Carley. Her face bore the resemblance of a child who looked like they were about to have a temper tantrum, but with closed eyes. Lee returned to his seat, next to Clementine. She had closed her eyes and her mouth looked like a thin line. He put an arm around her, and she laid her head up against him.

Larry had found the remnants of what looked like a rope, and tied Travis's hand to a handrail, just in case something happened. Summer's sniffling could be when she eventually woke up. She was whispering things neither Lee nor the other group members could understand. They'd been driving for about 3 hours, when Larry's snores accompanied Summer's and Travis's.

Suddenly, a loud slam came from up front. "Shit!" Kenny yelled, slamming on the brakes. Lee hung onto a weary Clementine, and Carley leaned over to keep a sleeping Summer from falling off the seat.

"What is it?" Lee called up front.

"I think we just hit a walker!" Katjaa called back, cradling Duck, who was asleep.

"Yeah, maybe more than just one…" Kenny said quietly from next to her. Then, he said in a cheery voice, "Who wants to help me get a walker out from under the car?" When no one said anything, Lilly finally said, "Fine…"

The two of them headed outside of the RV, and their muffled voices could be heard saying things such as "Dammit, the fronts damaged!" or "This thing isn't letting go; be ready… any minute now…" Eventually and after about ten minutes of the trapped walkers, Carley said she would go and see what was taking so long.

"You guys got it?" she asked, closing the door behind her. Kenny pulled it out a second later and Lilly crushed it's skull.

"Yeah we're good –"

They didn't even realize what had happened when several people had run out from the bushes with various things covering their faces. One of them, a woman, had grabbed Carley by her hair, looped her arm around her throat, and put a knife near her eye. Many of the men had their guns and even a few crossbows pointed at Kenny and Lilly.

"Give us the supplies, or this one _gets it._" the woman snarled in sadistic tone. "And don't even think about taking out your guns!"

"Oooh, this one'll be fun, Lindy!" one of the men said to the woman who had Carley. "A lot more fun Jolene's rotten, little brat!"

"You bet it will!"

"We're not giving you anything!" Kenny shouted. He would've shouted for Lee or Larry or someone, but he and Lilly were at gun point, while Carley was probably about 3 seconds away from being stabbed in the face.

"Don't give them the supplies!" Carley said in a quiet tone.

"Quiet!" the bandit named Lindy shouted, and poked the area beside Carley's eye with her sharp knife. Carley gave a sharp whimper and squirmed in her captors arms.

"I'll give you till the count of three," said another one of the men. "Then, it's gonna get violent."

"It doesn't _need_ to get violent!" Lilly shouted, curling her hand into a fist.

"Then give us your food and supplies!" said the same man.

They didn't even have time to say anything when the door slammed open. Lee had his gun pulled out and began to shoot each of the men before any of them could do anything, except for Lindy, who ran the knife over Carley's eye and then threw it down.

Lindy let go of Carley, who fell to the ground, screaming in pain. Lilly quickly pulled out her gun and shot Lindy as the bandit ran off. They all breathed a sigh of relief, then realized that Carley was convulsing on the ground in pain. Quickly, Lee picked her up and ran into the RV.

They all called for Katjaa, who scrambled from the front to see Carley bleeding out of her eye.

"What HAPPENED?"

"Bandits." They laid Carley, who'd passed out, onto one of the seats, hoping that maybe there was a way for Katjaa to fix the wound.

Lee looked at Carley's sickening wound. Lilly stood behind him, looking like she was going to throw up. Summer, Duck, Clementine, Larry, and Travis had all woken up at the sound of the gunshots. Travis seemed thoroughly surprised that he was still alive. Summer sat with him, watching frightfully as Katjaa tried to close the wound.

"I couldn't… I couldn't save her eye…" Katjaa whispered a few minutes later, wrapping up some of the napkins that she used to stop the blood flow. Carley's eye was damaged too far, they were all told. There was no way she'd ever be able to see out of it; the bandages they'd been saving for an emergency were tied to over her socket and around her head.

Carley's face was pale. Her mouth moved slowly. "Wha… what happened?"

"It was a bandit... She stabbed you in the eye. I shot her." Lilly breathed. Lee, Clementine, and Katjaa each let out sighs of relief that none of them realized they were holding. Carley understandably looked terrified.

"And… I'm not _dead_?!"

"No… just without your right eye…" Lee said this as quietly as he could, but Carley still heard it. She ran her small hand over the bandage.

"Fuck…"

"You can have this." Duck held his hand out with a small black eye patch in it. "Daddy gave it to me to play with… but it would look cooler on you." Carley took the silky eye patch in her hand.

"Thank you. I guess I _would _make an excellent pirate, wouldn't I?"

"_Aye – aye _captain!" Duck laughed. "Get it? _Eye – eye_?"

"Why don't you let Carley rest, Ducky?" Duck shrugged and frowned at his mother's suggestion.

"Okay." He took Clementine's hand and the two of them went back over to the other seats.

Lee heard Summer's barely audible, sarcastic mutter of, "Lucky her.". He frowned at her, but she looked away. After Katjaa had given Carley a very large dose of Morphine, Lee joined Clementine back at her seat. Lilly sat down next to him, looking distressed.

"That was just… gross. Like legless Mark gross." She whispered this to him, shaking her head.

"You got the girl, right?"

"Yeah."

Clementine slowly got up and sat in the middle of the two, taking hold of Lee's hand. She gave Lilly a slightly disapproving look. _Jealous Clementine_, Lee thought. He never thought he'd see the day.

After a little bit, Clementine fell asleep. And then Lilly.

_Then…Clem made a funny sounding whimper. Lee looked at her questioningly, wondering what was wrong. Clementine seemed to wake up. She moved her head up to where she was facing Lee – her face looked gray and decaying… no, no… She was a walker._

_Immediately, Clementine jumped on her father figure, aiming for the jugular. Lee was trying to push her off – but he couldn't. No, no, no! She sunk her teeth into Lee's throat –_

Lee woke up with a start. He jumped when he saw Clementine with her head in his lap. Carefully, he picked her up, stood up, and then laid her back down on the seat. Everyone but him and Travis (who surprisingly, _still_ hadn't turned) was asleep. Kenny had stopped the car in front of what looked like a freight train.

"Dammit…" Lee moaned, thinking about where they were going to go now. One by one, the other members of the group woke up, and expressed their own distaste of the situation. Carley had shakily stood up.

"It's just one thing after another, isn't it?" she asked, shaking her head. Each of the group, with the exception of Katjaa, Travis, and Summer, each got out and examined it. Yep… it was just as big and in the way…

Duck and Clementine took a seat on a log with Kenny, Larry, and Carley. Lilly headed into one of the boxcars.

"Be careful in there." Kenny warned, looking at the freighter uneasily.

"What," Lee said sarcastically. "You think there might be somethin' dangerous inside an abandoned locomotive?" As he walked towards the boxcar where Lilly was, he whispered to himself, "Hadn't crossed my mind…"

* * *

Kenny pulled his gun out at the sight of the gray haired man. He appeared to be in worse shape than most of them, and he looked about Larry's age.

"Who the hell are you?" Kenny asked suspiciously.

"Name's Charles. You can call me Chuck. Y'all touch my stuff?"

"What do you mean?"

"This here's my _home_."

Carley raised the eyebrow above her left eye. "You _live _here?"

"Yeah."

"Well… sorry for disrespecting it… two of our group members are in there now…" Then, quickly she added, "I'm… Carley. That's Kenny, Larry, Clementine, and Duck."

"Nice to meet yah. Don't see kids often."

"We've got another one in there." Carley pointed out the RV, just as she heard two other voices. Lee and Lilly both came out of the boxcar, and started to tell the group what they found when they noticed Chuck.

"Oh… guys. This is –"

"Name's Chuck. Charles if you're fancy."

"I'm Lee. This is Lilly. We're looking for a way to start that train."

"Sounds like y'all are takin' my home."

"Wait, you live _here_?" Chuck nodded, and looked at his train.

"She's the only one who wants me." Then, he had a glint in his eye. "If y'all want the train – if you figure out how to start it – I'm taggin' along. _Or no deal_."

"Fine… you can tag along…"

"Lee! Kenny!" Katjaa called from the RV. "It's Travis!"

Both of them walked to the RV, to see Travis coughing up blood. Katjaa wiped it off and helped him sit up.  
"He's out of time." Summer shook her head in denial.

"C-can I-I s-say goodbye?" Katjaa nodded her head quickly, and ushered the two men out.

Summer sniffled and whispered, "It's been a while since I talked to you…" Travis ignored the small girls prayers, remembering how she prayed to cope with loss – she done the same thing when he and Mr. Parker (or Mr. David as she called him) had to put down Jay, her uncle. He just hoped the other way of coping – not talking or eating for a while – didn't come back, too.

"I know I haven't been on my best behavior, Jesus. I know Travis hasn't either." Summer sucked in a sharp breath.

"Why…? Why are you taking him away, God? I love him so much… He's all I have left. Y-you took Auntie Rose… and Uncle Jay… and my puppy, Avery. And my mommy and daddy, and my baby brother. And Annie, too. You even took Mr. David. Do you hate us? You have both of our families to keep you happy…"

Lee and Clementine stood in the doorway, with Kenny behind them.

"I guess you needed another angel." Summer concluded her prayers and sat down next to Travis.

She laid her head on Travis's chest, hugging him, and he whispered to her, "You'll be okay… Summer… They'll take…" he coughed. "… good care of you…" Travis breathed in painfully.

"You don't… need me… You're strong… You're smart…"

"That's n-not true, Trav," Summer wept into his shirt. "I'm s-scared o-of my – my own s-shadow… Y-you said so yourself!"

Travis smiled slowly, his eyelids drooped slightly. "I was kidding… and that… that was back when… it first started…" his voice began to slur. "You've grown… so much… Look at me, Summer Lynn Paul." He shakily grabbed her chin and pulled her face closer to him.

"You're smart, you can be a big girl… Look at me, I'm just… A kid who thinks… he can survive… 'cause my dad… was special forces… he wasn't around much…"

"I l-love y-you, so much!" She threw her arms around her his neck and led out fresh sobs. Lee laid his hand on her shoulder. Clem looked at Lee sadly.

"Are you going to kill him?" she whispered, gazing at Travis's shaking body. Lee nodded slowly.

"I love you, too… I'll miss you… more than you'll… ever know…" Summer's lip trembled.

"Do you want Gabby?" Travis shook his head.

"You keep her, lil' princess… She'll keep you safe…" Summer, being the naïve girl she was, believed this.

"Will you tell mommy and daddy, and Uncle Jay and Aunt Rose, and Avery I miss them? And everyone else?" Travis smiled like a drunk, and nodded.

Lee helped Travis up off the bed and wrapped an arm around him to keep him steady.

"Goodbye."

"How about… I'll see you later…? Never say goodbye…"

"O-okay…"

Kenny and Lee walked Travis out into the forest so that no one would have to see them put him down.

They led him to a tree, about two minutes into the forest, and Travis slumped down onto the edge of it.

"Is… this the part… where I die?"

Kenny looked at Lee, and then pulled his gun out slowly.

"Yeah."

"Just close your eyes, kid. Close them, and pretend you're sleeping." Travis's eyes slowly closed and his head scraped against the tree.

"Are you going to do, pal?" Kenny asked, offering the gun to Lee. Lee looked from Travis to the gun, and then took the gun from the other man's hand. He aimed the gun at Travis's head, lined it up, and put his finger on the trigger.

"I'm so sorry."

Lee held his breath and squeezed the trigger.

* * *

Back at the train, a gunshot rang out, and Katjaa grabbed hold of Summer's waist as she cried, and tried to run right into the forest.

"I know sweetheart…" She hugged Summer's trembling body to her chest.

Travis was dead.

* * *

**Movie Quote: **

**"Vote for Pedro!" **

**Don't forget to leave me a review!**


	9. I Like Trains

**Hello! Well, I've got nothing to say. Enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

_It was my fault. Travis died because I couldn't convince him to stay at the motel… He thought he would be safe. He wasn't., _all of these thoughts went through Summer's head, confusing her to the max, and making her mournful tears run down her face as she leaned up against a large box in the boxcar of Chuck's train.

Travis had said to her, when she begged – even cried – for him to stay at the motel, "Don't worry, Sunny, I'll be back in an hour. It'll be fine. You worry too much." to which Summer replied, in her best grown up voice, "Because _you _don't worry enough!"

Travis had just rolled his eyes, like a lot of teenagers do, and ignored Summer's begging. And then, she had to give him what Mr. David Parker had called "her kicked Mort eyes" after Mort from _Madagascar_, like a lot of pre – apocalypse 6 year olds did. Usually, Travis didn't resist, and would give in after a minute of being stared down. But not this time.

"Come on, sweet heart, you gotta let him do his thing," Carley assured her. "He'll be alright. Lee will take care of him. Why don't you go draw with Clem?"

In Summer's mind, Carley's assuring of her was a complete lie… No, Lee _didn't _take care of him… The biter had gotten him, just like it had eaten Auntie Rose and Avery. He was bitten, just like Uncle Jay. And Lee killed him. Just like he murdered that guy who he'd gotten into a fight with.

No… she couldn't think of that. Lee was a good man, right? Travis had said it himself. Clementine had said it. Lilly and Carley had said it. Most especially, _Travis _had said it. But Travis also said he would come back unscathed. Travis was a liar, so what if everyone, even Clementine, the girl she was calling her "best friend", was a liar?

Summer pulled the sleeve of her red t shirt up and rubbed a scar she could barely remember getting on her arm. She was trying to breathe in and out, like Katjaa had suggested, but it wasn't working. It felt like her lungs had stopped working, and her vocal cords seemed to have joined them. Just like when Uncle Jay died. He died protecting _her_. That morning was something that she would never forget, even if she got amnesia.

_"Summer, Summer, you gotta get up!" Jay was shaking her as she laid in bed. Summer opened her eyes quickly and sat straight up.  
"Wasgoinon?" she slurred sleepily, grabbing her rabbit, Gabby. _

_"Get up, get Gabby, and meet me and Rose down stairs in 5 minutes. This isn't a drill, Summer Lynn!" Summer had rolled her eyes, because as much as she loved her middle name, being called, "Summer Lynn" always got on her nerves if it was said in that tone. So of course she didn't take 5 minutes. She crawled right back into bed, which was then the point that Jay came back in, landing several swats on her bottom, and carried her down stairs by her feet, which she hated._

_Rose was standing by the door, arms crossed, with her dark hair tied up in a bun, and a gun in her hand, looking particularly menacing for a pregnant lady. Avery was sitting beside her, red ears flopped and his long, pink tongue hanging out of his mouth. Jay threw Summer her shoes and a bathrobe, when she asked what was going on._

_"There's... something going on. It's going to be okay..." _

_"We need to get to Atlanta. They've set up some sort of quarantine zone, from what we've heard. It'll be safe. Stay close to us." Summer should have known it would turn out bad. _

_The biters came at them immediately, but Jay shot them. But it was when Avery ran back to the house, through the yard of biters, that Summer ran after him. Rose ran after her, and Jay ran after Rose._

In the end, Jay was bitten on the arm, Rose laid on the ground with her intestines and a fetus ripped out, and there wasn't even enough of Avery's body left to burry. Summer was the only one unscathed. Physically, at least.

"What's on your mind, blondie?" asked a gruff, southern accent behind Summer. Summer knew it to be Chuck's voice. Clementine came over and sat next to her.

"She's upset, Chuck. Travis got bit on the shoulder when he and Lee were out hunting." Chuck sighed and shook his head.

"Y'know, y'all are gonna end up just like him if you don't change the way things are happenin'."

* * *

Kenny could barely concentrate on the road ahead of him. Travis's bloody forehead was still fresh in his mind. That very well could have been Duck. Or Katjaa. He never wanted to have to feel Summer's pain; to lose the one person he had left, it would be the death of him.

The door opened, and in came Chuck. Who exited out just as quickly. It was quite boring to drive a train, honestly. Not what you would think it would be… not particularly exciting. He could at least use some random train hobo to talk to.

* * *

Clementine sighed, staring out of the boxcar, watching the trees go by. The roads, everything. Would they really end up like Travis had? Bitten in the shoulder, tied to a handrail, and shot through the head by her father figure? The statement hit her like a sledgehammer. It was one of the worst thoughts she'd ever thought. Lee came in through one of the doors and sat down next to the little girl.

"Hey, Clem."

"Hi."

Noticing her upset face, Lee asked, "You understand why we had to put down Travis, right?" Clementine nodded, glancing over at her friend.

"Summer doesn't, though." Lee put his arm around her.

"Summer's goin' through a lot. Be nice to her, alright?" Clem nodded again. "Wanna talk?"

"Uh – uh."

"What's on your mind?"

"What Chuck said." Duck answered for her, leaning over the box where Summer was sitting.

"What did Chuck say?" Lee asked, seriously wanting to know the train hobo said that upset the kids so much.

"H-he s-said we'd – we'd end up dead like T-Travis!" Summer cried from behind the box. That was about all she could get out.

"What?! The hell he did!" Lee shouted furiously. "I'm gonna kill him!"

"Swear." Clem whispered sadly, looking out into the distance.

"I'm sure you have experience with that," Larry said sarcastically from the corner.

"They know, Larry. There's no sense in trying to use it against me." Larry looked from Lee to Lilly and Carley in shock.

"I already knew, before you told me, that is." Carley informed him, messing around with the eye patch. Lilly wouldn't meet her father's gaze.

"Now do you believe me? Now do you believe your little crush was a killer?" Lilly rolled her eyes. It seemed that she'd been more upset Larry was _right_, rather than that Lee was a convict.

"Doesn't change anything. He's still the same guy, dad." Lee smiled, and then looked back to an upset Clementine.

"I'm gonna go talk to Chuck. Duck, where's your mother?" Duck shrugged.

"I think she's with dad." So Lee nodded to Clementine, and then ventured up to the front car, where Kenny and Katjaa were talking.

"Hey, Katjaa. Sorry to interrupt, but I think you're gonna want to hear this." Katjaa looked up, concerned, as did Kenny. "Chuck told the kids they were going to end up dead, just like Travis." Katjaa's eyes became as wide as dinner plates, and Kenny looked outraged.

"That fucking hobo told my boy – _my Duck _– that he was gonna die?!" Kenny demanded, standing up out of his chair. Katjaa swore. Quite loudly, actually, which neither of them had ever heard her do.

"What?! I get upset, too! Let's go beat some sense into that overgrown hippy!" After a minute, Kenny sat back down, and Lee and Katjaa headed out to the front of the train, where Chuck was leaning up against a rail.

"Hey." said Lee harshly. Chuck offered him a smile.

"How ya doin'?"

Ignoring this question, Lee continued. "Don't talk to those kids anymore. I don't care what reasoning you had."

"Why would you tell three _children _– especially a grieving little girl – that they would die?!"

Chuck rolled his eyes and looked away from the angry European woman. "'cause they are. If y'all keep on the way you are." He looked at Lee and sighed, running his hand through his greasy hair. "Look, I don't know much about you folks, but I can tell you, sure as the sun's goin' come up tomorrow, that if y'all keep on the way you are, those children aren't gonna make it."

"What do you know?" Lee demanded, looking over at Katjaa. She looked just as upset.

"I know y'all don't have a god damn plan. You get to Savannah, and then what?"

"We find a boat," Katjaa interjected, crossing her arms.

"Yeah." Chuck nodded and continued in a sarcastic tone. "Yeah, looks like you _do _have a plan. Especially when their won't be any boats." He stood up straight and sighed. "Look, sit down with them and hash it out. Find a map for Christ's sake – I'd give yah one if I had one! And if somethin' were to happen to either of you -"

"It won't." said both adults harshly.

"Well if it _were, _you've gotta prepare those kids. Teach them to use a weapon, and for _criminy, _cut that hair! Especially the youngest. That hair is way too long for her to be comfortable running around with."

"Like a gun?! Are you kidding me?" Katjaa demanded. "If _I _am not comfortable shooting one, how do you expect my son to be? Or either of the girls?!"

"They're little kids, Chuck!" Lee blurted out, exasperated.

"And they'll die little kids if you treat them like that. You've gotta consider them – each one – a living person. That's it. You're either living or you're not. You ain't a boy, you ain't a girl, you ain't smart or strong. You're _alive._"

* * *

"Did you hear what Chuck told the kids?" Carley asked Lilly, sitting down next to her.

Lilly shook her head. "What?"

"He told them they'd end up like Travis."

"What? He said that to three _children_?!"

"Yep." Carley rolled her intact eye, thinking about the stupidity of train hobos and why they would say something like that. But she heard Chuck talking about the hair length, and remembered that Lee had told her about Andy grabbing Clem by her shoulder length hair. That could've been a walker, and at the moment, Clementine (and keeping Kenny and Lilly from ripping each other's throats out) seemed to be the only thing(s) keeping him going. If something ever happened to her…

And then there was Summer, who they'd known for a few weeks, but her hair was half way down her back, twice as long.

Lilly's voice jerked Carley out of her thoughts.

"I'm going to assume Lee and Katjaa freaked out and at this moment are yelling at Chuck like it's no one's business." Carley nodded. "Great."

"How's your eye?" Carley ran her hand over the bandage and eye patch.  
"It still hurts, but… Not as much as when it happened."

Clementine, who had been sitting with Summer, took a seat next to Carley.

"Are we going to die? I don't want to die, Carley." Carley shook her head.

"No, sweetie. Lee and Katjaa are talking to Chuck right now about what he said."

"Okay…" Then, deciding to change the subject, she looked over to Lilly. "Do you like Lee?" Lilly looked up in surprise. "Like – like him?"

Lilly cocked her eyebrow. "What? I – yeah… Maybe a little… Do you mean the way _you _like Duck?"

Carley chuckled. "Oh, yes. Tell us about _that_, Clem." Clementine shook her head.

"No! Summer likes Duck… Not me." A small smile appeared on the young girl's face. "I think he likes you. At the farm, he said he did." Lilly looked away, trying not to smile a little bit.

"I guess I like him. A little." Clem nodded.

"If you hurt him, I'll hurt you." Both women's heads snapped back to look at the little girl in shock that she had just said something of that nature.

"What?" Lilly shouted out, looking at Clem like she was, in fact, crazy.

Clem shrugged. "If you break his heart, I'll break your nose. I saw that in a movie, once. And my dad said he'd say the same thing if I ever like – liked someone."

"That's about the most appropriate response to anything I've heard all day."

* * *

**Movie Quote: **

**"Why would I go looking for someone who wants to kill me?"**

**Don't forget to leave me a review!**


	10. Tankers and Trouble

**Heya, people of Earth! Well, I'm sorry about the slight delay in releasing the chapters (I was having an intense discussion on eye color with my grandmother), so here you go!**

**Once again, Rebloxic guessed the quote, "Vote for Pedro!" correctly. **

**What it's from: Napoleon Dynamite**

**Who said it: Napoleon **

**2nd Quote**

**What it's from: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban**

**Who said it: Harry**

**Well, enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

Christa Phoebus's arms carried her 11 year old niece down the path with Omid, her boyfriend of several years, following them, looking for anything useful. They'd been walking for several hours, and eventually Addy's legs had given out. The curly haired girl was currently asleep in her aunt's arms.

"Do you see anything?"

"Not a thing."

Christa shook her head, boosting Addy up some more on her hip. The couple and their niece had just barely been able to escape the group they'd been with, run by a man named Roman at a place called Gil's Pit Stop. They'd gone with a woman named Shel and her younger sister, Becca, when they had chosen to leave in the RV. But the five of them had split up after the RV had been stolen by some dead beat bandits.

The one person they were worried about was Roman. He'd chased them about five miles on foot, yelling how he would "track them down and rip their throats out". Eventually, he got tired and gave up running, but Christa's worst fear was being caught by him.

"We can rest up here, Chrissy. There's some cars. Maybe I can hot wire one…" Omid gazed out into the distance, and then took a seat on what appeared to be a piece of debris. Addy woke up a few minutes later, and was walking around some of the cars.

"When do we eat?" Christa shrugged and pulled Omid's bag closer to her.

"I've got an apple, some socks, a harmonica, and a rock. Which do you want?"

Addy shook her head. "I'm good."

Christa nodded, and Omid leaned his head on her shoulder, closing his eyes. "Be careful over there -"

Something reached out from underneath the car, grabbing Addy's ankle. She let out a scream and grabbed on to the side of the car.

Omid and Christa burst off of the debris, trying to get over to her –

The corpse sunk his razor sharp teeth into Addy's leg, and began to climb up her bodypinning her down.

"NO! NO!" Christa screamed as it made it's way up her niece's body. Omid took a shot at it, and the head exploded.

No… Addy wasn't currently laying on the ground with her throat torn out…

Addy was lying on the concrete with not only the leg bite, but her neck was bleeding. It had a large piece of flesh taken out of it. Christa could see pieces of flesh taken out of her throat.  
"No…" Omid moaned, seeing it. He ran his rough, tanned hands over his "niece" (because Addy was Christa's elder sister's daughter)'s bite. Christa laid her head over Addy, who's breathing was ragged and uneven.

Omid couldn't stop himself. He felt tears trickled out of his eyes, and sat down next to Christa, trying to stop. Christa seemed unwilling to believe that her niece was as good as dead.

"Addy... Addy... Wake up!" Christa whispered, shaking her niece. "Adelaide, wake up!" She pulled her niece's body into her lap. "Addy... PLEASE!" Omid leaned onto his girlfriend.

"Sh - she's gone..." Omid choked out. "She's not gonna wake up, babe..."

"SHUT UP!" Christa screamed, shaking Addy's limp body. "SHE'S NOT DEAD...!" but Christa knew she was being stupid. Not only did Addy get bit several times, but she'd hit her head hard when she fell. There was blood on the concrete, soaking into Addy's curly, black hair. Her tanned face got paler with every passing second. The woman knew that when Addy opened her eyes again, they wouldn't be that beautiful amber that was full of life and love for everyone, they would be an ugly gray and their would be no love or life. They would only have the lust for meat, and she would sink her teeth into anything within reach.

They knew what they had to do...

* * *

"Chuck made some very good points," Lee pointed out to Clementine and the other two. Katjaa nodded and sighed.

"We're gonna die?" Summer squealed in fright, clutching both of her fists. Lee shook his head quickly, and internally sighed. That girl was turning into a mini pessimistic Lilly.

"No… Listen. Kids, none of us are gonna let anything bad happen to you. But we have to take some precautions."

Duck opened his mouth to ask a question. "We have to do things so that we can be more careful." Katjaa answered before he even asked what "precautions" meant. This seemed to be the answer that Duck was looking for, because he didn't say anything else.

"What do we have to do?" Clem wondered, wide eyed.

"Well, for starters, for you and Summer, we have to talk about your hair. It's not safe."

Summer rolled her eyes. "That's not a very nice thing to say." The little blonde girl crossed her arms, trying to look "adult".

"Are you saying it smells?" Clementine asked, looking a bit offended. "It… It does. Kinda."

"Join the club, Clem." Lilly called from the back. "Mine smells like a lemur ate asparagus and then shit on me."

"No… no." Katjaa shook her head, looking stressed. "It's too long." Lee nodded. He agreed with her. A lot.

* * *

"Why do we have to learn to shoot?" Summer asked, glancing at Lee's gun fearfully. She and Clem had both gotten their hair cut to a reasonable length (Clem's was about three inches off, since her hair hadn't been quite long to being with, and Summer's was about ear length. Both had tied it back in some little hair things that Carley had found in one of the boxes), and then had the honors off shoving black and blonde hair (joined by a few tufts of brown hair because Duck wanted to "get involved" too) off the train, and into the face of a walker they happened to pass.

"You need to learn to protect yourselves. Just in case something happens." Clementine was shaking her head. She did NOT want to use one of those things.

Duck, however, seemed to be ecstatic to learn how to shoot. "It'll be just like _Call of Duty!" _

Summer covered her mouth, and said, "You said _duty... _hehe..."

_Well, it's better than saying 'shit'._

Neither Katjaa, nor Lee wanted to tell Duck that this wouldn't be like his video game at all. This was real.

"Clem, why don't we start with you…?"

Clem sighed. This was going to be a long day…

* * *

Omid was leading the way down the road with Christa trailing behind him. Addy's death was fresh in their minds. Christa hadn't said a single thing since they left her niece's body. Omid remembered how just an hour ago, Addy was excitedly chattering about what names she wanted for Christa's unborn baby, and now Addy was dead.

Christa wasn't even looking where she was going. The Persian man ahead of her didn't even know if she had her eyes open.

"Chrissy, please talk to me."

"I don't want to talk."

"Come on –" Suddenly, Christa stopped and gave Omid a look that clearly said, "Leave me the fuck alone".

"_I said I don't want to talk!_ Do you want me to say it in French?! Okay: Je ne veux pas en parler!" Omid's eyes were quite wide. He'd never understood why she was so fiery. Christa couldn't even use the excuse, "It's the French in me" because she was Canadian and had been adopted by a French – Scandinavian family. He just never got it.

"Okay, babe. I'll leave you alone."

They began to head across a bridge – there was a crashed tanker overhanging, when Omid suddenly pulled Christa down behind the wreckage.

"What?"

"Look…" A large freighter train was pulling to a stop.

* * *

"AW SHIT!" Kenny yelled over the train's intercom. "Everybody hold on!"

Lee took a hold of Clementine's shoulder as Kenny slammed on the brakes. He had to wonder what in the world was going on. As soon as it came to a complete stop, Lee, Clem, Katjaa, Duck, Summer, Carley, and Lilly hopped out, and they were joined by Larry a moment later.

A tanker that read "PSVF" on it's side was hanging over the bridge – and in the train's way. Kenny slammed the door of the train and stared intently at the object for a moment, furious about it's very existence, and then yelled, "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! FUCK! FUUUUUUCK!" This seemed to have let most of Kenny's anger out.

"Could we walk?" asked Summer's tiny voice.

"That's fucking stupid, Summer." Most, but no all.

"Sorry mister."

Chuck climbed down from the train a moment later and peered up at the tanker. It seemed that he didn't know what to think of it, whether it would impede them or what.

"Hmmm… I dunno. I ain't got much experience with y'all's fortitude, but we could probably deal with this. Come on… Larry, don't you agree? We've got a goddamn train."

Larry shook his head. "Of course not –"

"It's not full o' milk, Charles." Kenny interjected, putting his hand on his hip. "That's gas… or diesel. Somethin' that's gonna explode."

Chuck turned around. "You gotta get ahold o' yourself. This is a crew, here. We can –"

Kenny was shaking his head. "This?! This ain't shit."

"This –"

"Hey!" yelled a male's unfamiliar voice. "You guys keep screaming like that and you're gonna get your face chewed off!" Lee looked up on the bridge; a short, black haired man stood next to a much taller woman who had her arms crossed with disapproval.

"Are you guys gonna be trouble?" asked the woman. She had what sounded like a California accent, but her voice was a bit too faint to be sure. "'cause we could of just kept walking."

"No, we're not trouble!" Lee shouted back. "We're friendly!" He looked over at Kenny and whispered, "Put your hand down, Ken!" Kenny put his hand down quickly.

"That's what _everyone _says…" the woman sighed. "'Oh yes, I'm friendly. I'm not going to kill you if you try to leave!' That's what everyone says."

The man seemed to have whispered something to her – presumably rude or admonishing by the look on her face. "C'mon. Let's give these guys a break…"

"We'll see."

"You guys got a problem with your train?"

"Yeah…" Carley began. "Not to be rude, but you're kind of standing right in front of it."

"Come on, lady. It's a wreck. It's not too bad from up here. Send your buddy up to have a look." Lee assumed the man was talking about him and began walking towards it.

"If something happens," Lilly hissed. "We _won't _let them escape…"

Lee very much hoped that he would never have to take her up on that threat. He started up the ladder and told them that they'd "better not be murders or thieves". The woman replied with a sarcastic "I guess you'll just have to find out."

So Lee continued his climb.

_"A group of guys is what we need."_

_"They're what you think we need. I don't want this to be a repeat of Roman's group. 'sides, we're doing fine."_

_"For now. What about when -"_

_"Stop it."_

The man seemed to be Iranian or Persian and the woman was obviously very dark African American (or African something). They appeared to be in okay shape – with the exception of a few cuts on the man's forehead and several slices on the woman's face.

The man wiped the sleeve of his dirty, brown jacket across the side of his face and looked at Lee with a boyish face that held curious, amber eyes. He, in all seriousness, looked like he could have been Clementine's father. The woman on the other hand, laid her hand over her purple and white jacket. Lee, for a moment, wondered why it appeared to have a small bump.

"Hey dude, name's Omid." the man informed him, holding out a hand to shake. Lee shook it firmly, making the man named Omid pull it back to rub.

"Lee."

"Christa." the woman muttered after a few seconds of silence. "What's the deal with the train?"

They seemed to be okay – the only thing that made Lee uneasy was the fact that Christa's pale brown eyes seemed to be X – raying his soul. They had a bag, so it wasn't as though they were without supplies. And both of them looked like someone had just died.

"We're driving it."

"Oh, man!" A large grin spread across Omid's face. Christa gave a small smile and shook her head.

Lee sighed. "Look, I won't bullshit you. Today hasn't been the best. We just had a bite victim – he was 14, and one of our group just lost her eye. We just lost the one place where we were safe, and now we're freakin' out. And…"

"It's okay." Christa stopped him. "We're the same –"

"Shit!" Omid yelled excitedly. He looked behind Lee. Clementine was coming up the ladder. Suddenly, when Omid saw Clem as a whole, the smile slowly slid off of his face. "Goddamn…" he moaned.

"What're you doing up here?"  
"I wanted to say hi."

Christa closed her eyes for moment, noticing how much this child looked like her niece. The same beautiful, curly, black hair, the same eyes… except for the hat. Addy had never liked hats.

"You don't know how long it's been since we've seen a kid… other than our niece, I mean. We… er, just lost her. Her name was Adelaide. Addy for short. Looked just like this one here. What's your name?"

"Clementine."

Christa smiled sadly. "That was my mother's nickname. Her name was Clémence, but... everyone called her Clementine. Your middle name doesn't happen to Marie, does it?"

Clem nodded eagerly. "Was that your mom's middle name?" Christa gave her another sad smile and nodded quickly.

"You're not her dad. Is he down there?" Lee shook his head.

"It's that obvious? And no, he's not down there." Most of the people they'd met seemed to think Clem was his daughter.

Christa raised an eyebrow with a suspicious look on her face. "Hm. What's your story?"

Lee had to think about this for a moment… It wasn't like he could say "I was on my way to _jail _when I found her" or something like that. "I found Clementine the first day all of this started. We've just been trying to get by."

"Oh. And everyone down there, they're cool?"

Lee shrugged. "We just met Chuck, but everyone else is alright. Larry's a bit of a hardass, but you get used to it, Summer was Travis – that kid I mentioned a minute a go –Travis's surrogate sister, so she's taking it hard, and know that Duck is young, stupid, and will likely bug you. A lot." Lee racked his brain for anything else. "That's about all I can think of."

Christa nodded, putting a hand on her hip. "It's always the new people you've got to watch out for…"

"You used to love meeting new people."

"Must've been a long time ago."

"We're sorry for anything that's happened to you guys… The train's awesome, though."

"That tank's your real problem. We'll help, but if we see anything we don't like, we're gone. _Alone_."

That sounded fair. "We'd appreciate the help."

"We can't just blast through it, I guess?" Omid questioned, eyes widening as though he found pleasure in that sort of thing.

Ignoring this, Christa continued. "If you got some of it down, the rest would likely be pretty easy."

"We'll start there."

She gave him a small smile. "We'll come down, settle in, and see if we can help."

Before Lee went down there, he searched the FRS truck and found some tape. That probably wouldn't be the most helpful thing in the world, but it was an apocalypse. Maybe they would need to fix a hole or something.

The four of them climbed down the ladder to see the rest of the group waiting anxiously. Summer had bitten her lip in fear to the point where she was drawing blood. Kenny was staring at both of the two new people. For all they knew, these two could be _murderers_, and not the type Lee was.

"Guys, this is Omid and Christa." No one said anything.

Omid scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Not big on welcomes."

"Like I said, today hasn't been the best."

"We… just wanted to say hi, and that the train's pretty cool-"

"We're not looking for charity…" Christa mumbled, apparently unwilling to accept help when she obviously needed it.

"The plan's to cut the tanker down and be on our way."

"And you plan to do that, how?" Kenny wondered, tapping his fingers on the side of the train. Katjaa nodded.

"I have to agree with Ken. How do you plan to do this?"

"Seems like a good plan," came Lilly's voice. "Don't know how we're doing this, but… It's our only choice."

Omid turned to Lee. "Wanna start in on that tanker?"

"I'll get to know the girl for a minute – if you don't mind." Christa whispered, pointing to Clementine. Lee nodded, and she and Clem – joined by Summer, Katjaa, Carley, and Duck a moment later – headed over to the abandoned tracks.

"Now… _Let's get down to business_."

"To defeat the huns…" Omid sang. When Lee gave him a confused look, Omid said, "Go back to 1998, watch _Mulan_, and get yourself a childhood!"

* * *

**Quote: **

**"So I'm... stalling?" **

**Don't forget to leave a review (not just guessing the quote, actually comment on my story). **


	11. Internal Thoughts

**Hi. **

* * *

Chuck had sat down and started playing a soft, cheerful tune on his guitar, while Kenny and Lilly were in the train with Omid, showing him how it worked. The other women and the three children were sitting on one of the abandoned tracks, talking to Christa. She didn't seem to have a lot to say.

Lee wasn't exactly sure _how _they were going to get the tanker down, unless there was a way to somehow unhook the overhanging part and push it away. But that would likely only be used as a last resort. It would depend on the angle they were doing this, but he was pretty sure there was a 90% chance that it would either crush them or explode.

Larry was sitting on top of the train and was suppose to alert them if any walkers or people were coming up behind them. It was an easy enough job, Lee supposed. Just yell, "We've got a walker/We've got people coming!" and then it'd be dealt with and over with.

It was dusty, and the slightest gust would whip huge dirt clouds into the air, causing everybody to break out it into fits of coughing. Lee honestly wanted this tanker to be down sooner than he thought.

He'd walked over to where Duck and the women were talking; Christa and Carley, who had similar scars on their cheeks, were discussing how they got them.

"… So then this obese guy comes up to me and says, 'What the hell are you doing?!', and I'm just staring at him because… Y'know, there's an unspoken rule, that even on Black Friday, you're not supposed to push women around. Nope. He shoved me in front of a car and I ended up needing stitches on my cheek. Jesus." Carley shook her head and ran her hand over the tiny scar. "But it's not very big, so when kids ask me, I would just say I was a pirate. Now that I've got the eye patch I can support that claim." She smiled.

Christa chuckled and nodded. "I remember, about a year ago, I was lying in bed, and the phone rang. It was Black Friday and Omid was out shopping. So I answered, and Omid goes, 'Hey… Chrissy. Have I mentioned I love you?'. He got arrested for beating a guy up to get a toaster. We're both gluten intolerant, so unless he was planning to cook sausage in it or something…" Clementine laughed. Summer even smiled, but her face went emotionless barely a second later.

"Hey girls. And Duck." Lee added the last part when he saw Duck give him a look. "You guys interrogatin' this woman for us?" he joked, pointing to Christa.

Clementine nodded and chuckled. "Yep."

"Has she set off any alarm bells?"

The young girl shook her head. "Not yet."

"They're a_ll _very thorough," Christa chuckled, leaning back onto the tracks. "I suppose you have to be, these days." She shrugged and wiped one of the bleeding cuts on her face with her sleeve. "From what they've been telling me, you guys have had a worst time than we did. Cannibals? That's worse than the Decays."

"Decays?" Katjaa piped up from the side, wondering what type of slang the woman was using.

"It's what we call them. That and Chain Chomps." When given an odd look, Christa added, "My brother in law, Dillon - he got bit, so we tied him up with some dog chains in my gran's shed and he tried to... bite them. Decays actually came from my gran."

"Oh… okay. We just say walker."

"Anyway… I like to hear that they're thorough. That's good."

"That's a pretty useful radio for her to be holding onto, no?" Christa pointed to Clementine's walkie talkie, which was laying on her lap.

"It's busted… But it means a lot to her." The woman nodded.

"So… Where are you from?" Lee didn't know why, but he felt like making conversation.

"Canada, originally. But I grew up in San Fran. We were on a lil' trip when everything went to hell."

California was quite a way's away Georgia. How they ended up in Georgia, Lee had no idea.

"Sheesh. Long way from home." Christa gave him a smirk.

"I blame the one in there." She pointed to the train. "_He _wanted the great American road trip. I just wanted to start my college course. Psychology isn't the easiest thing to study during a road trip."

Lee nodded. "You both got more than you bargained for."

The woman shrugged. "Who the hell is into Civil War history, anyway? Other than old white guys, I mean."

Carley let out a laugh as Lee slowly raised his hand with a small smirk on his face. "Good. You two will be thick as thieves."

* * *

"So how does it work?" Omid asked, trying to finger the train levers levers. Lilly slapped his wrist.

"Stop. We don't know what that does yet, you jackass."

Omid shrugged sheepishly, reminding himself that this woman wasn't someone to cross. She was worse than Christa on her period. Kenny was examining the map that Lee had given back to him. Savannah was at least a day away.

"Well, once we get this piece of shit moving, we'll be on our way to Savannah and -"

"Did you know…?"And for a minute, Omid rambled on about the Civil War and something about Savannah as though he'd swallowed a text book. Lilly and Kenny both stared at each other for a moment and then resumed reading the map.

"…And that's how -" The man stopped, noticing that neither of them was listening. "Damn… Just like every kid I've ever taught…"

The door opened and in came Lee. "Hey."

Lilly muttered a greeting and continued looking over the map. Omid smiled. "Hey."

"So… Learnin' the ropes?" Omid grinned and looked over at the levers.

"Trying to. There's a lot a lot of buttons I _can't wait _to use!" Omid was obviously very excited – he reminded Lee of Duck in a way of the enthusiasm. At least Omid seemed smarter.

"We said _if _something were to happen." Kenny grumbled, seemingly irritated about Omid's enthusiasm. Lee was rather surprised that anyone could be so optimistic about everything, given what they were going through. He was like a child – just smarter.

"How have you two made it this far?" Lee asked, leaning on the rail. "You seem dangerously normal."

"Well… We were with a group, not too far from here, actually. Near Gil's Pitstop, if you ever seen it. We left with a lady and her sister about a month ago – took the RV, because we were terrified of the guy running it. His name was Roman, and he tried to get Shel, one of the girls we took off with, to kill her best friend. I don't even remember why. He chased us for 5 miles on foot. Ever since then, Christa doesn't let us join groups." Omid made a face, remembering how much they wanted to get away from that sociopath.

Lee's eyes widened a bit. _That… was a bit much. _Trying to take the attention away from murder, he commented, "Sounds like _she's _taking care of _you_."

Omid grinned and rolled his eyes. "Please… I've saved her ass hundreds… Tens… s_ome _times."

"Hah. How long has it been since you've been home?"

"Like 6 months… We were on the road for a while and then Christa found out –" Omid's eyes widened, trying not to blurt out that Christa was knocked up with his child (They'd only found out she was pregnant the day before they saw a dead one for the first time).

"Found out what?" Lee questioned, wondering if this would reveal what the couple had been arguing about while he was climbing up the ladder.

"She… found out her grandma was sick… Yeah. That's what it was… We went to her house in Warner Robbins Air Force Base. We got woken up the morning everything happened when some girl was running up the street screaming, 'DAD! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?! And I need your spare key to my house!'"

Suddenly, Lilly's face turned bright red. Kenny snickered.

"I just needed his spare key... I woke up late and I locked mine in the house by accident. I didn't mean to wake you guys up."

Omid snorted. "Wow. That was you? Hah. Small world ain't it?  
"Yeah… The alarm clock never went off."

"That actually explains why all you were wearing was an undershirt, back at the pharmacy. That and pants."

"Doug pointed that out. Then he started rambling on about why women need to wear bras to bed."

Omid continued. "I'm just worried about our pets. We had two dogs, three fish, and a cat. Teddy's gonna be pissed." His eyes went extremely wide to a point when Lee wondered if he had some kind of disorder that made his eyes unusually huge.

"Teddy?"

"The cat. He hates me because I named his Theodore Roosevelt. But come on… He was awesome like Theodore Roosevelt. You know why he was awesome? He was a Persian. Like me."

* * *

Lee exited the train and took a long look at the station several yards away from them. It looked dangerous and menacing in the distance. He took a nervous glance back at the others, who didn't pay him any attention.

Slowly, he began his walk over to it. Suddenly, a small hand slipped it's way into his. Lee looked down to see a cute little girl with pigtails and a hat.

"Can I follow you over there?" Clementine asked hopefully, gazing over to the large wooden building.

"You don't like the new girl?" Lee smiled and looked back at the women and Duck, who didn't seem to be paying attention to either of them. He kneeled down to her level.

Clementine shrugged. "I do. But we're a team! Please?"

Lee sighed. "…Yeah. You're right. Alright. Come on," Lee stood up to full height and called over to the others, "Clementine and I going to check out the station! Hustle over if you hear anything, alright?" Both Chuck and Carley gave him a thumbs up to ensure that they'd heard him, and then returned to what they were doing.

* * *

Omid leaned his head up against the side panel in the train, feeling exhaustion taking over his body, not even paying attention to what the other two were saying about the train. Today… Today had been overwhelming. Terrifying, even. Terrible. Nightmarish. Sad. Just sad.

The minute he'd seen poor little Addy get grabbed, he knew it in his gut that she wasn't going to make it. Omid was optimistic, on the outside at least, but in his mind, he was probably about as pessimistic as Christa. Well, maybe not _that _bad.

Ever since this thing had begun, Omid felt the terror he thought he'd given up when he moved out from his childhood – the constant fear that one of his siblings, who he seemed to parent, was going to be hurt, or even killed by their alcoholic mother.

Just like his father.

But now, the only difference was that instead of his mother accidentally killing someone in a drunken rage, it would be a dead one killing every hope and person that he was close to.

The man took a deep sigh and looked out of the cracked window to see Christa conversing slowly with the others – the blonde woman (Kat, he'd heard Kenny call her?) and the girl (Sun or something along those lines.) who looked like she could be her daughter, the little boy who was probably her brother, and the thin woman who was missing an eye (Carla?). Every so often, she (Christa) would look away and look like she was going to have a panic attack or something, or burst into tears.

Omid didn't blame her. He wanted to cry so badly. One of the things he'd told Lee was that on the inside, she was probably crying in the corner, eating a tub of ice cream, and that was exactly how he felt… This world was a puppeteer, and his heart and her feelings were the puppets. This world wouldn't stop.

_I have to wonder what we did to piss God off so badly that he did this to us…_

Omid wasn't a Christian, if he were to be honest. He'd been raised by a Muslim father and a Christian mother, but he'd been Muslim until he was 11, when his father had been killed. Then, his mother forced her own religion of Christianity on him, and he just didn't understand it. But ever since he was 16, he'd been an Atheist. He'd told Christa that he really didn't care what religion she was, but he personally had bad experiences with it. When they'd found out she was pregnant, their biggest concern was getting a crib and wondering what religion to raise the child.

But... with this world, they didn't have to worry about that. No one should have to go through this world.

The children should have been starting a new school year, not worrying about when their next meal would be. Omid should have been starting his first year as a History teacher, and awaiting the birth of his children, not killing dead people. Christa should have been studying and researching for her college courses, not worrying about taking care of a baby in the middle of nowhere, where dead people ruled the land.

But that was how the world worked now.

* * *

**Quote: **

**"Did you save China?" **


	12. If Your Friend Jumped Off a Bridge

**Hi everyone! Well, here's the chapter. **

**As for the quotes - **

**Quote #1, Where it's from: The Spongebob Squarepants Movie**

**Who said it: Mindy**

**Quote #2, Where it's from: Kung Fu Panda 2**

**Who said it: Mr. Ping**

**Nobody got them!**

* * *

One of the things Carley always thought about was family. Each day, that was what she thought of – how many families were still together? How many had been split up and torn apart by death?

She knew that nearly everyone in the Motor Inn had lost someone – Lee with his parents and brother, Clementine's parents (They were likely dead…), Summer's entire family was dead, Travis (When he'd been alive) had been separated from his family, Mark (again, when he'd been alive) mentioned living in that old commissary with his cousin, whom he grew up with, and so on.

Carley didn't talk about her family a lot. It was sometimes too hard, just to think about them. She'd grown up an only child for 17 years when her mother had suddenly asked her one day, "Remember when you asked for a little brother or sister, Car? You're finally getting that wish." And then she smiled in a way that only her sweet mother could. The smile that lit up a room like a Christmas tree and seemed to push away all of Carley's negative thoughts.

Her father had been a busy man, working for a woodworking company, and had decided to just craft a crib by hand. Around that time, Carley wasn't expecting a double dose of siblings when her one brother turned out to be identical twins – Chandler and Chance, keeping the letter C in the family.

She would've died for them. They were her own flesh and blood. They were much too young.

Carley remembered that terrible day, just three months ago, when she went back to her house with Doug, just after he'd helped her fight off a couple of walkers (she hadn't had her gun at the time) and saw that her answering machine read "26 MISSED CALLS FROM ELLA AND PETE ANDERSON". The voicemails of her hysterical mother and father were heart breaking – Chance had been bitten and no one knew were Chandler was.

They never found Chandler, either, that was what was even worse. But they'd found his lucky horse keychain, the same keychain he'd never gone anywhere without. The same one that Carley had given him for his 5th birthday. They'd also found his shoe, and the torn remains of his brown cowboy hat.

And the voicemail after that one just had screaming for help. It had started out with, "Carley, please! We need you to – AHHH!" and had just continued from there.

A day didn't go by when she didn't think about it. In all truth, Katjaa reminded her of her mother – so caring and sweet, and Lee was a lot like her father in many ways – he put himself before others and would have been willing to die to save someone he loved. Every day, she saw Chandler and Chance in the children. Duck reminded her of Chandler, carefree and daring, but not too bright. Both girls seemed to be a combination of Chance. Clementine was caring and quiet, while Summer was anxious and seemed to be quite terrified at times, just like Chance had been.

Carley put her fist up against her eye, and then drew it back with a slight hiss of pain. The stinging in her eye socket was not yet gone, no matter what she assured Katjaa, or lied to Lilly or the kids.

She couldn't believe it, though. Only a day ago, she'd had both eyes and the worst part about her was that old stitch scar from a few years before… _now, she looked like a freak. _

Although, Duck giving her the eye patch made her feel less like a freak. Now, at least she wouldn't go around exposing her stabbed up eye and socket to the world. But then again, no one cared whether or not you looked nice during a zombie apocalypse, but it _did_ boost her self esteem, and the eye patch made her feel much, much better.

* * *

Summer was sitting on the edge of the train, staring at her small rabbit, which was dotted in blood.

"Gabby, why is everything bad?"

She grabbed the stuffed toy and said, in a high pitched voice, "I don't know. It's really bad. Those biters are mean. I miss Auntie Rose. And Uncle Jay. And Avery, even though he used to chew on me."

"Me too." Summer answered back, and then took a look over at her friends and that nice woman who looked like Auntie Rose, who said her name was Christa. She looked up, gave a small smile, and then continued talking to Clem. "I want Trav."

"The kid was liar." Summer answered herself in "Gabby's" high pitched "voice", thinking about what she'd previously thought. She bobbed Gabby's tiny head to simulate talking.

That couldn't have been true… But "Gabby" continued.

"He said he'd be okay. He said he'd always be there. Now look where we are."

"But… maybe he'll come back. Just like the princes in my story books." Summer knew she was being stupid. But what if he _were _to come back? It wasn't impossible… After all, she'd seen those biters die, and then THEY came back, but they were _dead._ But there _had _to have been some part of them that was still alive. There had to be. They walked. They a_te_, for God's sake! How could they not?

But then, there was that nagging voice in her head, which always seemed to come out whenever she needed a second opinion. _"Remember what David said? 'They aren't human, Sun. I don't know what your aunt and uncle let you watch or read, but they are NOT human! They CANNOT feel anything! Your uncle would not remember you, and neither would your aunt.'" _

Her rabbit was a liar.

* * *

Gunshots echoed from the train station in the distance. Chuck stopped strumming his guitar and looked up concerned. Katjaa and Carley did the same. Christa looked at the other two, feeling her eyes widen. She began trying to not have herself breathing heavily to avoid looking like a complete and utter idiot, even though she really wanted to start freaking out, but her heart was thumping quite hard. The worst was pushed into her mind – _what if someone was shot?! What if - ?!_

"They probably just found some walkers," Carley said quietly, noticing Christa's sudden concern. "Do you mind on them, though? To see if they're okay?"

Christa shook her head quickly and stood up. "No… I don't mind." And then, she set off at a quick run to the train station.

As soon as she came upon the building, Christa called inside, "Is everything okay in there? We thought we heard gunshots." She opened the door to see both Lee and Clementine unharmed, but several dead walkers lying on the floor. She stepped forward and looked at them, then at Lee and Clementine.

"We… um… Found some walkers." Christa closed the door behind her and looked Lee straight in his very dark eyes.

"You and an eight year old versus three Decays, huh?" She tried to appear calm and walked closer to them, trying to give Lee the look she used to give Addy that made Addy say, "I'll just ground myself."

"We handled it." Lee told the woman harshly, and then looked down at Clementine who looked quite upset – she probably felt like she was in trouble.  
Christa groaned, and then stepped over a walker. "Yeah, but what if you hadn't?" she continued in a hostile sounding voice and started to walk around the other bodies.

"It's not your business." said Lee, starting to get tired of her attitude. "_We handled it._"

"Oh?" Christa almost yelled in a dangerous voice that remind Lee of Lilly, back at the pharmacy. "Think again. What if you _hadn't? _That takes three Decays up to _five _Decays, one of them being a child. I think that _is _my business!" Then she sighed and added. "I don't want to see another little girl get her throat torn out. That's just what _I _was thinking."

Clementine's eyes widened, hearing those words, and she looked up at Lee uneasily.

Lee stared at Christa for a moment. "I'm gonna go make sure that noise isn't gonna cause us any trouble." she announced bitterly.

"That's a good idea."

Christa looked back and gave Clementine the smallest of smiles, then walked to the door and shot Lee a scowl.

"I hope you know what you're doing with her."

"We're still alive, aren't we?"

"Yeah. You are."

Christa walked out, and then slammed the door to the building and pressed her body up against the wall, sinking down. She put her head in her hands, trying to calm herself down after what had just happened. Addy – no, _Clementine _– had just given her one of the scares of her life.

Hearing those gunshots had forced panic into her brain – the first thing she thought of was that someone had shot either the girl or Lee. She was just that pessimistic and worried, even about people she'd literally _just _met.

Christa had had issues – anxiety and trust issues – since the age of 11, when she and her younger brother, who was 9 at the time, were jumped and beaten up by several thugs on their way to school. All three of the men were young white men, who punched Will (her brother), and then slammed her up against the concrete, calling her a "little black bitch". She'd tried to keep Will from getting hurt, and then another man, probably older than her own grandfather, spotted them, and then tried to take on the three other men. It didn't work too well, and he almost died. He was the only one.

She remembered how they had asked if her and Will wanted a ride to school, but the way they did scared her, so she declined. They all got out and tried to beat up the two children, calling Will a "bastard" and then called Christa several racial slurs.

Several people had passed them and didn't even seem to care that two young children were being beaten up for their bags, clothes, or money, and just kept walking. This had left both Christa and Will with severe trust issues and anxiety issues to the point where if they had to be in a room with someone else, it was the other, and no one else, which caused meltdowns that had them both sent to child psychologists.

And even then, Christa wanted to shield Will, and every other child, but at the same time, let them know that these things really _did _happen, and that telling them about it wasn't just to keep them from doing naughty things. That there _were _real dangers in the world, like the villains in those horror movies that her father used to let her watch when they thought her mother wasn't looking.

It was dreadful that she had to be this harsh to get this idiot (or maybe it was just his dumb moment for that day) to actually _check _the goddamn building before sending that little girl in there.

Suddenly, she stood up and circled the building, looking to make sure nothing was coming out, and then looked at her stomach.

There was a baby that she was going to have to protect in just five or six months, and not act clueless like Lee when she had them. Christa didn't even know if she wanted to have this baby and expose him or her to this world. If she and Omid decided to stay with this group, how they were going to tell the group she was _pregnant_, of all things.

They could just throw the two out and say, "Sorry, but we don't want someone carrying a screaming bundle of flesh that has to be fed every hour. Good luck living, losers."

* * *

Lee returned back to the train with Clementine, dragging a propane tank that had been coincidentally left in the station. Christa returned back to the track, along with Clementine.

Omid, Kenny, and Lilly all looked out the window of the train. Larry looked down from on top, and then resumed looking over in the distance.

"Need some help?" Omid called, putting his hand above his forehead to shield the bright sun from his eyes.

"If you're up to it." Lee answered back.

Omid had one end of the small propane tank as he helped Lee lug it up the ladder. Both of them were hoping that it would somehow end up working – by using some sort of sparks. They had no idea how that was supposed to work.

Lee grunted, setting it down in front of the wreck. "You think this'll work?"

Omid let out a harsh, yet strangely excited laugh. "_Dude_, you're cutting _metal _with _fire_. How could it _not_?" Lee shrugged, and then bent down, took the handle, and then turned the small button. He could hear the liquid coming out, but there was none coming out of the top.

"Shit."

"What's up?"

"The hose has a leak in it."

Omid looked alarmed. "Turn it off, man! I-I don't want my eyebrows burned off!"

So Lee bent down and turned it back off, noticing a small amount of the gasoline spilling out through a hole. Remembering the tape, he pulled it out of his pocket, wrapped some around the hose hole, and then ripped it.

_That's better. _

"Hope this holds."

So Lee turned it back on – it began to shoot out the sparks immediately – and pointed it towards the coupling. It began to practically disintegrate, just before their eyes.

"Wow – look at it go!"

"Just about… got it!" Lee didn't notice the truck's tires moving ever so slowly towards him, until he felt Omid's arms around his waist, pulling him back and out of the way of the truck.

"Damn, thanks." Lee thanked, pulling himself up off the ground.

"No sweat."

Now, they were seriously in a pickle ("I'm so hungry, a pickle sounds good right now," Omid said when Lee pointed this out. "And I _hate _pickles."). Lee examined the possibility of hanging off of the truck in order to get the thread of metal that was left. In all honesty, Lee had to wonder how the tanker hadn't weighed down the thread to the point where it broke – but this was an apocalypse. Nothing made sense anymore.

"Here," Lee told Omid finally, sticking the handle in his face. "The last part of the coupling is out of my reach."

"And you think it'll be within mine?" He looked at Lee like he was stupid. "Have you _met _me? You and I are like R2 - D2 and Hagrid. You're the tall one who knows stuff, and I'm the short guy who mutters a bunch of nonsense."

"No," Lee grumbled, ignoring the excess media references. "But I'm gonna dangle you off that ledge."

Omid's eyes went extremely wide, and his face contorted to some sort of terrified scowl. "_The hell you are!_"

"It's just a small bit. The smallest cut and it'll let go."

The next thing they knew, Lee was dangling Omid off the bridge.

"Man, you're a real son of a bitch, aren't you?"

"Shut up and start cutting!"

Suddenly, a loud noise in the distance distracted Larry, who was still on the train he turned around and –

_Hundreds, probably thousands, of walkers were running or walking towards the train. _

_"Shit!" _

Kenny heard Larry's yell, and so did everyone else.

"Uh, Lilly? What's he yelling about?"

Lilly got up from the seat and took a peak out of the door. She pulled her head back in barely a second later, with a furious look on her face.

"What is it?"

"Go." she demanded, pointing ahead. "It's… it's a herd. We're fucked."

With a loud crash, the tanker hit the ground and rolled over the ladder, taking it with it. Kenny got into the seat that Lilly had been sitting in a moment before, and started up the train.

"KENNY! GO!" came Lee's muffled voice.

Chuck, Christa, Carley, Katjaa, and the kids climbed onto the train. Christa noticed Summer hanging over the edge, holding her hands out, and pulled her back, smacking her hands with a disciplinary tone in her voice.

"Don't hold your hands out! Do you want to get bit?" Summer didn't answer, and followed Clem into the train. Kenny had the train going underneath the bridge, going slow enough so Lee and Omid could jump on.

* * *

"What do we do?" Omid asked with a hysterical tone in his voice, as he and Lee sat at the edge of the bridge. Lee looked back at the herd, and then back at the train.

"There's only one car left!" Omid said again. "Lee?"

The last car pulled out.

"Oh… Fuck it!" and Omid shoved Lee. Off the bridge. And then jumped after him.

Lee, though taken by surprise, managed to grab a hold of the top. Omid wasn't as lucky. He hit the train with a _flump _and then catapulted off of it like a rubber ball on a tile.

He lay still, even with the approaching walkers. Lee heard Christa scream as he climbed into the boxcar, and the next thing he saw was her jump off the train and run in a jagged way to get Omid off the ground.

The two began to run – limp very fast in Omid's case – alongside the train. They'd caught up with the boxcar when Lee leaned over and was able to pull Omid in. Christa disappeared from view.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?" Omid shrieked with hints of physical agony in his voice. "CHRISTA! CHRIS -"

But they were interrupted by a loud banging noise, and then Christa climbed in next to them. Omid looked like he was going to cry, and threw himself at her, and then kissed her – for at least 20 seconds. And he still didn't let go.

Christa pulled Omid's pant leg up. There was a huge, deep looking gash underneath, and a crimson stream ran out. Omid groaned.

"Are you okay?" came Clementine's small voice from the corner.

"We're fine, Clementine," Christa said quietly, examining Omid's wound.

"Speak for yourself! My leg is _fucked_!"

"We're _fine…_"

* * *

**Quote: **

**"Hello sweetie." (This is from a TV show). **

**Don't forget to leave a review for both the story and the quote.**


	13. Almost There

**Well, here you go. I apologize for the lack of chapters in the last few days, but I've been a bit busy working on another story that I have yet to publish and I went to Universal Studios with my grandparents, so I was exhausted. But I hope you enjoy the chapter. :)**

**As for the quote...**

**Where it's from: Doctor Who**

**Who said it: River Song**

* * *

"… An' Emma says, 'Where's your mustache, Chuck?', and I said, 'I cut it off. 'parently, someone thought I was a child molester.'"

Chuck was right in the middle of telling Omid a story about one of his fellow homeless friends, and the time he shaved his mustache. Omid actually had to wonder how Chuck had managed to go 14 years without living in a permanent place. It just seemed unnatural.

"She didn't really know what a molester was, really. Lil' Emmy, she di'int know much at all, other than survivin'. She was only 13 – she never went go to school. Ran away from home when she was 6. Her daddy was a drunkard, momma was a druggie. I found her in a parkin' lot, eatin' a dead bird."

So far, Omid had his leg wrapped up by Christa, and cleaned up by Katjaa. But it was quite deep – no one really knew what to do. If they had to stitch it up, they'd have to use fishing wire, the only thing they had, which probably wasn't even supposed to be used on wounds. But, of course, they had no needles.

Chuck seemed quite saddened, hearing himself tell the story of his little friend. So far, he'd told Omid about losing his house in 1998, living on the street for a year, getting kicked out of a homeless shelter because he had night terrors, and then finally finding a homeless "group" a year later. But what happened was just sickening.

"It was me, this old guy, Stanley, who had visions of his dead wife, this girl who we called Twig, 'cause she was real skinny, this homo couple, Charlie and Rono – they're the reason I go by Chuck, not Charlie – a cutter named Brenna, and a boy called Reggie. And then, we found Emma. And we were… well, like y'all."

Omid nodded, giving Chuck a signal to continue.

He sighed, taking a swig of his alcohol. "We got picked off, one by one. It was Stan first. Got hit by a goddamn car. Then Rono got himself beat to death by some shit head protesters, the poor kid. Charlie offed himself. He took Brenna with 'im. Reg… caught Cholera from somewhere. Never found out where. He died in Twig's arms. She caught it, a lil' bit after."

Chuck took a very large gulp of his drink. "Want some?" He held the bottle out.

Omid slowly shook his head. He'd never been big on alcohol, and he knew that alcohol was sort of a trigger for Christa, who'd been sober for 5 years straight. Besides, to Omid, it tasted like he was drinking sand – one of the things he'd sworn he would never do again after doing it the one time he and his sister had been dared to do it by some pervert in a beach parking lot.

"What happened to Twig?"

"She lasted two days. And then Emma… she tried to fight it. But…" Chuck suddenly threw the bottle at the side of the train car. Omid ducked as the glass and what was left of the booze flew in several directions. Katjaa, who'd fallen asleep in the corner, woke with a shriek. Larry was still snoring in the other corner, and Lilly, who was near them, didn't even look up from whatever the heck she was doing.

"I'M AWAKE!" she screamed with a panic, flying to her feet. She looked around, her shoulders slumping when she saw Chuck with a guilty look on his face, and scowled. "I'll just sleep in the front." And then she left.

"Em di'int even make it a week. Lasted three days, though. I just lived on the streets again. Then, 'bout a month 'fore this shit, I found the train… The dead guy was here when I got here."

* * *

"Are my parents there?" Clementine whispered into her walkie talkie.

"_**Yes, sweetie. They're in the other bedroom.**_"

"Can I please talk to them?" she asked urgently and excitedly.

"_**They're asleep, Clementine. They're extremely tired. Maybe later, okay?**_"

Clementine sighed, and scratched at the side of her face. She had to wonder if he really did have her parents – but why would someone lie about _that?_

* * *

Several hours passed by. Rain began to pound on the roof of the train. While Lee was up front, Kenny commented that driving the train in the rain was like being outside during a snowstorm, and Chuck offered to take over so that they could rest.

They were going to go back to the boxcar, when Lee remembered that Clementine was asleep in the chair. He was about to pick her up, when he suddenly heard something.

_**"Hell…o?"**_

The walkie talkie that was currently sitting in the open purple bag was emitting static noises… and a voice. Kenny looked at it curiously, as did Katjaa, who was groggily awake in the other chair. Chuck shot it a glance, but didn't pay it too much attention.

_**"Can't wait for you to get to Savannah, Clementine." **_

The voice was not one that any of them recognized. But it was obviously a man.

"… the fuck?"

_**"I've got your parents right here, and you be sure to find me, whether Lee wants you to or not. Now what I need -"**_

The signal cut off, just there.

"What in the world _was that_?" Katjaa demanded, standing up, looking at the radio with wide eyes. "Who was that?"

Lee shook his head in shock. He didn't know why, but for some reason, this spelled "pedophile" or "really desperate for a child", neither of the things he wanted. If Clementine had been talking to him, what had she told him? That they were going to Savannah, no doubt about that, but what else?

There was no way this man had her parents. No way at all.

"I thought that fucking thing was broken!" Kenny whispered in a horrified sort of tone.

"So did I."

Lee clipped the radio to his pocket, and then lifted Clementine out of the chair.

"We can talk about this in the morning. We just need some rest." On the inside, he was really panicking.

He headed out of the door, leaving Kenny, Katjaa, and Chuck to marvel over the voice. Lee walked past Summer, who was leaning up against a bar.

"Why don't you come to the boxcar? We're gonna sleep in there." Lee whispered, cradling Clementine's head in his arms. The other girl shrugged and followed without a comment. Usually, she was pretty talkative – but then he remembered that Travis had just _died _less than 12 hours ago.

Lee entered the boxcar to see half of the group passed out on the floor. Larry's snores echoed throughout the small car, bouncing off walls. Duck was wrapped up in one of the blankets they'd found in the RV. Lilly looked like an armadillo, sitting, yet curled into a ball. Omid was wrapped up in Christa's arms – she seemed unwilling to let go, as though she was afraid he'd be snatched away if she let go. They were whispering to each other quietly. They both seemed to shut up as soon as they noticed Lee.

Lee laid Clementine down next Duck, and then grabbed the only other blanket, before putting it over her.

Summer sat down next to Christa without saying anything.

Christa turned around, with her arm still around Omid.

"Sorry about earlier. … Just didn't want you to get bit. It's… not good."

"I don't care." Summer spat bitterly, turning in the other direction.

_I bet Clem misses playing with a girl who gave a fuck_, Lee thought, and then sat down on the other side of the boxcar, where Clem and Duck were.

"No." Christa scolded. "You do care."

"You don't know me!" Summer nearly yelled, giving her a small shove. Christa grabbed the girl's wrists.

"You don't touch me. You hear me? I'm sorry about your friend, but that doesn't give you an excuse to just act like a brat. We've all lost someone." Christa lowered her voice to avoid waking up the others. Omid looked a bit concerned. Just then, Christa's eyes widened with a sudden realization.

"You _want_ to get bit, don't you?" Summer almost seemed happy to have someone understand her thinking.

"Why wouldn't I? Everyone I love is dead. It's not like anyone cares."

Omid looked seriously repulsed – a suicidal _6 year old_?!

"First of all, that's not true; second of all, what is wrong with you?" Summer shrugged.

"What're you gonna do? You're not my mommy and daddy. Or my auntie and uncle. You can't hit me. You can't touch me like my daddy used to. You can't do anything to me." She stuck her tongue out.

Christa was shaking her head. "No."

"What?"

"You're not going to get bit on purpose, crazy girl. I can tell that there's people in this group that care about you." The girl was shaking her head in that way that 6 year olds did when they thought something was stupid. "People die. You know why?" Omid whispered as quiet as he could.

"… Because it's God's plan?"

Christa seemed to be mentally debating with herself. Omid felt a bit awkward. Being an Atheist, he didn't exactly know about what "God's plan" really was. But this little girl was obviously raised very Christian, so he'd try to do the best he could with her.

"Well… yeah. Sure. We'll go with that."

"When you get bit, you die. When you get bit on purpose, you're committing a sin, by doing what's called suicide -" Christa was cut off when Summer began to look offended and started rambling about something.

"I'm not a baby. I know what suicide is. My daddy did it when I was three. I don't really 'member. He just drove into a house. He killed my sister and my mom. My sister's name was Annie. Annabelle. She was 6, like me. Is God mad at my daddy? Did he go to…" the child trailed off, trying to think of an alternate word for "hell", which was probably considered a disgusting swear word in family. "… that bad place?"

"Suicide is a sin." Christa explained simply. "We won't know until we die. You don't want to go to Hell, do you?" Summer shoved her hands over her ears, and started shaking.

"_No!" s_he choked out, sounding like she was going to start sobbing. "_I don't wanna r-rot in Hell!_"

Omid shot his girlfriend a look, and then put his gently hand over Summer's mouth. "Hey… if you don't wake everyone up, she'll say she's sorry about making fun of your dad. Okay?" Summer nodded quietly and, after Omid removed his hand, she put her own hands over her mouth.

"Sorry…" Christa whispered, feeling a small amount of guilt for telling a child that she would go to Hell if she didn't want to live in a world filled with dead people who wanted to eat you. "But think about what I said."

"I will." Summer whispered with a serious, yet extremely terrified sounding tone.

* * *

_**"ROT IN HELL, JACOB!"**_

_**"I'm not the bad guy here –"**_

_**"REALLY?! YOU'RE THE REASON OUR MOTHER IS DEAD!" **_

Lilly woke herself up by smacking her head on the wall.

"Shit." Her own 14 year old self's yelling was ringing in her ears, along with her elder brother's protests that his drunk driving was someone else's fault.

_Stay out of my dreams, Jake. That should be a place where I don't have to hear your voice. That should be a place where I can work on imaginary planes and maybe play with a dog or something. _

Lilly could practically hear a 17 year old Jacob Caul's voice answer back, _Why, little sis? Why should I ever let you forget the day that my driving drunk killed the woman who raised us and made our father so terrible? Why should I?_

Lilly let out a growl sounding groan. This was why she hated sleeping. After her mother's death, she hadn't remembered ever having a pleasant dream, and then that added with the terror of the cannibalism at the dairy, it only got worse. Still, she began to doze off within about a minute, but smacked her head, yet again, when an earsplitting gunshot, and a man's yell echoed inside.

_She knew that scream. _But it was one that had plagued her nightmares for at least 5 or 6 years.

The brown haired woman pressed her hands to her ears. Jacob she could deal with. But not that same gunshot and scream. Not what hit her ears ten years previously when she thought someone had broken into her house in the dead of night. In fact, someone had. But finding that out shouldn't have taken someone's life.

_"Owen, you fucking idiot." _Lilly whispered to herself. "First Jacob, and now you. Great. I'll tell the welcoming committee to throw a party if Uncle Todd wants to join my group of voices."

"Are you alright?" Lee's voice whispered. Lilly's head snapped the other way. Why was it, that Lee seemed to always be awake when she least wanted to talk? She liked talking to him, but telling someone about your nightmares about your drunkard, mentally ill brother and shot dead ex boyfriend wasn't exactly something for "random night conversations".

"I'm fine. Go to sleep."

Lee shook his head. "Something's bothering you. I can tell."

"How would _you _know?" Lilly whispered back with a slightly aggressive tone to her voice. "I'm fine. How about we talk about something else?"

"Alright, fine. Are you sure?"

No answer came from Lilly. Lee looked back over, having shifted his head to check up on Clementine. Lilly had turned around, so she was facing the wall.

"Okay, then. If you wanna talk, I'm right here." _It's not like I'm ever going to sleep with _him _in the boxcar_. Lee looked over at the massive army man a few feet from him.

Lee seemed to be the only person who was bothered by Larry's snoring. The kids were sleeping like babies, Lee knew that Lilly was probably immune to Larry's snoring, Kenny and Katjaa, who were sleeping near him, weren't bothered, and neither were Christa or Omid.

Since it looked like he wasn't going to sleep, tired as he was, Lee decided to keep an eye on the young couple. He was still wondering if they were trustworthy – after all, they'd just shown up out of nowhere – or if they were going to be trouble. Omid seemed like a perfectly nice guy, but Christa seemed like a very emotional... Lee couldn't think of a right word to end that sentence.

This was one of the reasons that he'd tried to listen to what they were whispering. Lee caught small snatches of what they were saying, like "what should we call 'em?" or "do you want to go through with this? Are you sure?" and things along those lines. And then the odd, "I miss Addy." and "I do, too, babe."

Lee actually felt kind of stupid that he hadn't picked up that the two were a couple until Omid had kissed Christa; he'd thought Omid was Christa's gay best friend, because Christa seemed to be the type who would have a gay best friend.

After a while of still not sleeping, Lee went to the front and checked on Chuck, who had on a 1000 yard stare, like he was under some sort of mind control, or just really into what he was doing. It turned out that that was his way of staying awake, and it happened when he was seriously involved in something, like keeping the train going.

* * *

Eventually, morning came, and they ate stale food that was in the box of supplies from the back of that Station Wagon. No one said anything, but Kenny, who was the most optimistic anyone had ever seen him. He was talking about finding a boat – like always – but now, he said that they should find a boat with rocket boosters.

"Keep dreaming, asshole." Larry commented, waving his stale granola bar around.

"He said the same thing when he bought a boat for his job." Katjaa informed him, chuckling lightly. Kenny just shook his head and headed to the front of the train to take over for an exhausted Chuck. Who wouldn't want rocket boosters on a boat?

* * *

They entered Savannah not too long after that. And as they got their food and supplies, they all began to walk down the street.

If there was one thing that everyone could agree on, it was that it was a desert.

Nothing. No sounds. No movement. Just the eerie silence.

* * *

**Please leave a review. :)**


	14. Go Time! Kind of

**Hey guys. Well I may as well get this out of the way for the day since I won't have much time today anyway. **

**If you're wondering why, it's because my 2nd cousin's body and the body of his best friend were found the other day in his car with bullets through their head, and today is their funeral. They think that Johan Quinones did it, so you can type his name into Google or something if you want to read more about that. I didn't know Stephen (my 2nd cousin) all that well, and I didn't know Elijah (his friend), but it's still really sad because he is a part of my family on my dad's side and Stephen has a 5 year old son. :(**

* * *

Savannah actually looked empty. There were no sounds but the eerily blowing wind.

The group made their way down the street, noticing that every car was damaged in some way, mainly with their hoods up and parts stripped, which everyone found odd. Why would they need that many car parts?

Everyone stayed in a tight formation; Kenny was leading, and Carley was in the back, pointing her gun in every direction that a noise came from. Chuck was carrying a shovel over his shoulder – where he found that was anyone's guess. Omid was limping, leaning on either Christa or a car for support. He was probably making the most noise out of anyone. Katjaa had her arms clamped around one of the boxes, which had a majority of the food, and what was left of the medicine (since most of the bandages and Morphine went to Carley and Omid)

Lee still had the walkie talkie clipped to his pants pocket, with Clementine walking not too far from him, staring at it.

They walked past a large house with a wrought iron gate. Clem stopped for a moment and took a look at it, then ran to catch up with the group. She came up beside Lee, and her eyes shifted to the walkie talkie.

"Can't I just hold it?" she asked in a quiet voice. Lee looked down with a sad look on his face, knowing what she wanted to do. "Just for a little while? We're getting real close to where my mom and dad are. Maybe I can -"

"Not now, Clementine. Maybe later, okay?"

Clementine gave him a disappointed look. "Okay."

Lee looked over to Christa and a grunting Omid. "How's Omid?"

Christa looked back, her face pale with worry. In a pessimistic tone, she replied, "I… I don't know. His leg's pretty bad…"

Omid screwed up his face. "I'm fine."

Christa was shaking her head. "You're NOT fine!" she shot back. "You need to rest!" she turned back around to Lee. "He – he needs to rest!" Lee nodded quickly, realizing the urgency of the situation. He called up to Kenny, "Maybe we should take a break."

Kenny seemed to either have ignored him or not heard him.

"Ken?" Katjaa whispered hoarsely. Kenny looked over. "Omid needs to rest."

Kenny shook his head, though he offered Omid a sympathetic look. He stopped for a moment and then looked ahead of them. He sighed.

"I'm sorry. We've gotta keep going. You wanna get eaten out here?"

Lilly rolled her eyes. "Of course he doesn't. It's his leg. Jesus, you'd think you'd understand, Mr. We – Need – To – Stop – I'm – In – Shot – The – Gut." Kenny huffed and began walking.

"That was different."

"How so? Because it was you?"

"You tryin' to pick a fight?" The mustached man shot back, stopping completely in the middle of the road.

"Now hold on a minute –" Larry began, but Lilly cut him off, holding her hand up.

Her face contorted with rage. She looked seriously offended. "I'm not trying to pick a motherfucking fight, dumbass!"

"Lilly! There are children –" Katjaa began, covering Duck's ears. He didn't protest. Clementine just looked a bit disturbed, and Summer had covered her ears already.

"I don't care – I mean I _care _– Why do you try to…!" Lilly had a stoic, plain look on her face, but it was quite obvious that she was frustrated, getting angrier by the minute. She sighed. "Just forget about it. Let's go."

Christa, who was still worried about Omid, was about to protest, when everyone's arguing was cut off by loud _"BONG!" _

"Motherfu…" Larry trailed off, looking around.

_BONG!_

"Maybe this city's not so dead after all." Carley whispered from the back. Omid looked around worriedly, biting his lip.

_BONG! BONG! BONG!_

"Let's just keep moving. River Street's not too far from here." Kenny was brushing this off a lot easier than everyone else. Katjaa even looked not only curious, but a tiny bit angry, too. "Guys, there's nothing ringing those bells – they're automatic; on a timer."

Lee was about to check his watch for the time when Lilly suddenly grabbed his wrist and checked the time for herself. "What kind of church bell goes off at twenty past the hour?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"She's got a point," Omid agreed. Christa nodded, deciding that she agreed. Suddenly, Lee looked up at the tower and its roof. He noticed what appeared to be a hooded figure carrying a tool in his hand. The figure ran out of sight.

"There's someone up there!" Lee shouted out, pointing up to the bell tower.

"Are you sure?" Carley asked, squinting her good eye. "I can't see anyone."

Lee shook his head, still feeling his heart beating fast from the sudden appearance of the figure. "I know I saw someone up there! He just moved really fast. Hey! You up there!"

"Shut up, you asshole!" Larry hissed, shooting Lee a look. "You're gonna -"

Larry was cut off by a static sound, which came from Lee's pocket. The walkie talkie.

Clementine looked over at it with wide eyes, acting as though she had no idea what in the world was happening, and that it was possessed, and just happened to know her name.

_**"If I were you, I'd get out of the street. Now." **_

Lee reached for it, when Christa turned around furiously, and practically yelled, "I thought you said that thing didn't work!?" Lee gave her an annoyed look, and held the radio near his face.  
He pushed the button, and then firmly replied, "Who is this? Is that you up in the bell tower?"

There was no answer.

"Clem…" Summer whispered, pulling on Clem's sleeve. "Who was that man? Is he bad?"

"Yeah!" Duck wondered aloud. "Who _was _that guy!?"

Next to the kids, Omid was the first to break the silence. "Who the hell was that? Is someone trying to fuck with us?"

"It sounded like a warning." Carley replied, moving to the front of the group formation.

Chuck turned, and then said, calmly, loudly, and clearly, "_Ask not for whom the bell tolls_…"

Kenny turned around in Chuck's direction. "What're you yammerin' on about?" His eyes widened. The rest of the group turned around.

It seemed that at least an 8th of the herd had followed them into the city.

"_It tolls for thee_."

Lee had wide eyes, and then, he yelled on impulse, "Everybody! RUN!" Every member of the group, Omid included, took off as fast as their legs could carry them in (surprisingly) the same direction. Kenny was running with Katjaa and Duck hot on his heels, shooting as many walkers as possible.  
Chuck was using his shovel, and Christa was shooting several walkers with a gun that Lee didn't even know she and Omid had. The two followed everyone else.

Kenny ran right up to walker, quickly shot it, and then continued running. Chuck was swinging his shovel as though it was a sword, and he was a fearless knight.

"Ah shit!" Kenny stumbled to the ground as a walker's hand latched onto one of his legs. His gun flew out of his hand, sliding just out of his reach, and the other hand gripped a street sign.

"Kenny!" Lee yelled, catching up to his friend. He pointed the gun at the walker, and then ended it's undead "life" without a second thought. Kenny pulled himself up and grabbed his gun.

"Thanks, Lee. Lil' too close, don't you think?"

Suddenly, a loud cry of "CLEM!" coming from a child's mouth, distracted the both of them. Lee turned quickly to see both Clementine and Summer trapped against the wall.

"No! Somebody! Help them!" Carley took three shots at the walkers, hitting the nearest two before her gun began to make a clicking noise.

"ARE YOU FUCKING SHITTING ME? I'm out!" Lee gestured for her to back up, and took shots at the walkers. While there was an open space for them to escape, both girls were completely stock still or panicking. Clementine looked like she wanted to move, but couldn't, and Summer looked like she wanted to become one with the wall.

Suddenly, Clementine turned to the side and let out a scream as a seriously disfigured walker raised it's hand over her. Lee's eyes widened, and he took off towards her. He thought that she was about to be eaten when the walker was knocked down from the back with a sharp blow to the head, revealing Chuck.

Lee engulfed Clementine in a hug, and looked behind him to see that Summer was still frozen, stock still against the wall.

"Get em' out!" Chuck ordered, slamming his shovel into the walker's abdomen. "I'll catch up with ya!" The man gave a small nod. Lee gave him one back, and gestured for both girls to run. Clementine grabbed Summer urgently by hand.

As they caught up with the rest of the group, Kenny shouted to everyone, "Come on! Move your asses! River Street's right up ahead!"

"Oh… _give me a fucking break!_" Lilly shrieked at one of the approaching walkers.

"Guys?" Christa said loudly. "Where the hell's Chuck?" Lee turned around without answering to see Chuck still battling with the walkers.

"Shit, he's in trouble!" Omid pointed out, looking very worried. "We've gotta help him!"

But the approaching walkers fencing them in, and away from Chuck. There was no way they could get through there in order to get to them.

"Jesus Christ… There's no time! We've gotta move!" Kenny assured them, pointing ahead.

Chuck yelled from over by the walker, "I'll be _fine_! JUST GO!" And everyone gave him a last look, before running down the street, around the corner.

* * *

The next thing they knew, they were running to the backyard of a house. Kenny shoved the gate open, while Christa had her arm around Omid, trying to help him stay steady. The rest of the group struggled to get through, colliding into each other. Kenny ran ahead of them, crashing into Omid.

"I'll get the door open!" Omid leg bandage snagged itself on the gate, ripping it open. Christa struggled to pull him up, half dragging, half carrying him to the wall.

"Are you okay?" Lee asked Omid in an urgent tone.

"Ugh… yeah."

Christa bent down next to him, carefully separating the torn bandage. Lee noticed a large hole in Omid's jeans that was over the cut – it must've happened when he'd fallen off of the train – where blood was slowly inching its way out.

"You opened up the cut! You're bleeding!" Christa exclaimed, trying to press the torn bandage remains against Omid's leg, but to no avail.

"Here, let me see -" Katjaa cut in, setting down her box of supplies. She took a quick look at the house, seeing Kenny trying to either pry or push open the door, while Lilly was messing around with some boards on the windows. Larry was positioned by the wrought iron fence, keeping an eye out for walkers, while at the same time, shooting Christa and Omid looks of what might've been looks of distrust.

Lilly turned her head to look at Christa. "We got it. He's injured. It's pretty obvious, even from here."

"Shut… up."

"You shut up."

Christa gave her a seriously pissed look. Katjaa gave her an admonishing look before she could reply and cause a fight.

"Here, let me see the cut…"

Lee looked over to Lilly, then walked over to her. She tugging at the boards at the window.

"Lilly, could you try not to pick fights?" Lee said to her quietly. Lilly stopped tugging, then turned around to face the man.

"What'd do mean?" she had an inquisitive, and slightly offended look on her face, her eyes slightly widening. "You think I'm purposely picking fights for the hell of it? Because I'm not." She crossed her arms, giving Lee a look.

"I never said you were, but…" Lee trailed off, unsure of what to say. "Forget about it."

Lilly turned back to the board and ran her fingers over a rough edge. "Yeah. I'm done arguing with Kenny. I'm sick of it – because _I _always come out the bitch. _I'm _always the bad guy. Dad and I are both tired of it." Lee frowned slightly, understanding that Lilly's arguments with Kenny weren't high on her priority list, but that they seemed to be high on Kenny's.

"I understand."

* * *

"The door's probably one of those magnetic locked ones." Omid informed Kenny, Lee, Lilly, and Larry, who were all crowded around the doggy door, trying to see if they could break it open and have someone crawl through there.

"Just our luck." Lilly muttered, clenching her teeth.

Larry made a fist. "Why the fuck would someone LOCK their dog door? That's the stupidest thing!"

"Um…" Omid began. "If I may make an objection, when I lived in Wyoming, I had an unlocked one for my lab, and my ex girlfriend, Henrietta, crawled through it so she could steal my peanut butter. And I got robbed by a bunch of little fuckers – sorry, _child delinquents_ -that lived down the road. More than once." Christa shook her head.  
"I still wonder why Henrietta didn't just buy some of her own peanut butter. God, that reminds me of the stupid shit that Nicole used to do…" Christa trailed off, and then directed her attention back to the door. Nicole… it was just a bit too soon to talk about her sister.

"How does it work?" Kenny wondered aloud, looking to his wife. "Kat, didn't you have those at the vet's office?"

"Yeah, we did. The dog wears a collar with a chip in it, and the door only opens when the dog gets close to it. You can program chips to only open with certain doors. That's what we did to keep the dogs from getting into each other's pens at the office when they came in from the outside yard." Katjaa suddenly looked over a makeshift grave that was sitting next to a doghouse.

The doghouse, which read "Walter", was empty.

"Where's the dog?" Clementine asked with a shy tone. A moment later, all eyes were the grave. Then, the shovel that was sitting by a large shed. Then, Lee.

"You want me to dig up a corpse, don't you?"

* * *

Lee was positioned over top of the dirt mound with the shovel in his hands.

"Hey…" Omid began. "Be careful. Diggin' up dead things isn't exactly what it used to be, you know what I mean?"

"Sweetie, it was never normal." Christa muttered, covering her eyes.

He began to dig into the dirt mound, until it became a hole with a pile of dirt sitting next to it.

Everyone, with the exception of Omid, was crowded around it. There was a carcass of what was probably a dog, but looked more like some sort of ferret mutant with an overlarge collar.  
Lee suddenly realized that Clementine was standing next to him.

"Clem, go over and sit with Christa and Omid, okay?"

"But, I want to –"

"Just do what I say, okay?"

Instantly, Lee regretted his harsh tone with the girl, as she walked back over to where Christa was standing and Omid was sitting.

Katjaa turned to Duck. "Duckie, why don't you go with her?" Duck had no protest. He took Summer by the arm and dragged her back with him.

"Eugh…" Lilly muttered. "That smells like my uncle's bathroom."

Kenny gave her a weird look.

"What? It does. He never cleans it."

Lee stuck the shovel into the dirt mound, and then bent down to take the collar off of the ferret – dog. It was stuck on it quite tight, though. The harder he tugged, the more the head wobbled, until the head fell off completely.

"Ugh!" most of the group groaned.

"Okay, that is NOT cool!" Katjaa moaned, shielding her noise.

A retching noise took Lee's attention. He turned around to see Christa leaned over the tiny hedge, emptying the contents of her stomach. She stood back up and wiped it off of her mouth.

"Are you okay?" Clementine asked quietly.  
"I'm fine, honey. It's just the smell."

Omid looked rather alarmed. "Are you sure you're –?"

"I said I'm _fine_."

Lee looked at the collar, then at the dog door.  
It was go time.

* * *

**Please leave a review if you feel like it. **


	15. A Note From Daisy

**Hi everyone. Make sure you read this A/N carefully: this is my last prewritten chapter that I have, therefor, chapter updates will not be regular as they have been. And I really do hope that you enjoy this chapter. There are a few things that you learn about Fivel's family that will actually play a part later in the story. I'll let you guess what. Rebloxic, don't you dare spoil it for the others! You either, SoonTheApocalypse! **

**And thank you guys so much for the condolences for my family. The man who killed my cousin and his friend has been charged with 2 accounts of 1st degree murder and is possibly facing the death ****penalty.**

**Clover out. **

* * *

Lee brought the dog collar to the door and held it in front of it. If this didn't work, they were going to have to bust it open, and that would surely lead the walkers straight to them.

But fortunately, the dog door light lit up and emitted a tiny clicking sound that seemed to signal that the door was unlocked.

"Jackpot!" Kenny shouted from behind him in a triumphant tone.

The growling of the walkers began to get nearer to the house. "Guys..." Christa said in a panicky tone. "Oh, Jesus, if you're gonna do something, do it fast!"

"Can you reach in there?" Lilly asked, kneeling down to see. Lee was up to his shoulder with his arm through the door, but he was unable to even grab the doorknob because of the door in the way. "See anything?"

"It looks like it's been empty a while," Lee responded trying to stick his head as well as his arm into the door. "So, that's a no." He eventually, after a moment of trying, pulled both his arm and head out of the doorway. "I can't get it open."

"Here," Lilly began, nudging him to move over. "Maybe I can get -" But before she could even finish her sentence, Clementine had zipped past the two of them and into the house through the door. All eyes were on the dog door, and there was complete silence except for Lee's voice and the growling of the walkers.

"CLEM! Oh, God! What'd you see in there?!" There was no answer, and then the door swung open with a little creak.

"Ta - da!" Clementine giggled, waving her arms. "I got it!"

"Good job, Clem!" Lee chuckled, even though he was a bit upset at her for giving him such a scare. He gave her a pat on the shoulder, and then beckoned for the rest of the group to come into the house.

"I did good? Right?" Clementine asked proudly, but uncertain at the same time.

"Yes, you did. You did good!"

Christa pulled Omid up, he put his arm around her shoulders, and she helped him hobble in.

The house was fancy on the inside, but the wall color was a bit dull. There were pictures littering the wall, some on the floor, and some haphazardly placed in odd ways. There were 3 couches, an arm chair, and a large, grand fire place that Lee kind of wished they could light because of the coldness.

"So," Christa began in an angry tone after laying Omid down on the couch and leaving him with Katjaa. "When were going to tell us about the damn radio?"

"Tell ya what?" both Kenny and Larry asked in the same tone.  
"That it's w_orking_!" Christa nearly shouted, crossing her arms. "That there's someone else on the other end of it. You don't think that might've been worth sharing?"

"She's got a point," Lilly agreed, leaning up against the wall. "We were told that it didn't work, and now there's a pedophile sounding man talking through an 8 year old's radio and stalking us. That's something that I would LOVE to know."

"I was gonna tell you," Lee protested, avoiding eye contact with anybody. "Kenny and I only found out yesterday!"

Lilly groaned, and Larry looked quite furious. "So both of you were keeping it from us? Really?"

"Who gives a shit about the damn radio!?" Kenny interrupted, massaging his temples. "I'm more worried about _who _was out there, ringing that fucking bell, and bringing the dead down on top of us! It's like they didn't _want _us to make it to the river!"

"That's what we're saying, dumbfuck!" Larry shouted, restraining himself from smacking Kenny. "We think that the person on Clementine's radio is the same person ringing the bells! For God's sake, listen!"

"Larry's right." Christa muttered, putting her hand on her hip. For a moment, Lee was actually surprised that she was agreeing with him. "What makes you think it's _not _the same person? 'cause I think it is." She sighed and bared her teeth for a moment. "Listen, whoever it was, they were close enough to see us in the street. And we didn't see anyone else, other than that guy in the bell tower."

"It doesn't make a lick of damn sense, lady!" Kenny curling both of his hands into fists. His face was starting to turn red from anger. Katjaa was listening from the living room, where she was re wrapping Omid's leg, and dearly hoped that her husband didn't do anything stupid in a fit of rage. "Why would they ring the bell, intending to hold us up, and then warn us about it? No one's stupid enough to do that!"

Christa raised an eyebrow. "I could make you a fifty foot list of people I know stupid enough to do that." she muttered, looking away as though many of those people were in the group.

"Kenny, how much sense does anything make these days?" Lilly cut, putting both her hands up in defeat. "Remember the St. Johns? They left Mark bleeding out, yet they said that if the person dies, the meat's no good. This person's probably got the same mindset."

"And if you hadn't noticed," Christa began forcefully. "There's a lot of twisted folks out there these days. You all have had your share of that, and so have me and Omid. At least the dead don't play games with you."

Finally, Lee found an entrance so that he could speak his mind. "Whoever that was on the radio, I think they were trying to help us. They did warn us, didn't they?" Though, Lee had a bit of a hard time believing himself that this person was trying to help them. It could have been some sort of taunt that they had all taken as helpful or for all they knew, he could've been drunk.

"Maybe he's right," said Lilly in a bit of a happier tone.

"But whoever it was," Larry continued. "They're watching us."

"Yeah, and if you feel comfortable being stalked, that's your business - and if we weren't in an apocalypse, I'd say go to a shrink - but I don't." Christa concluded, shaking her head. "And if they're stalking us, they're gonna do something - they won't just watch us."

"What?" Kenny sneered, crossing his arms. "You got experience with this kind o' thing?"

"Yes, actually. You ever seen those people who follow you around in cars?" Several of them nodded. Christa continued. "When I was 11, these 3 guys did that to me and my little brother on our way to school, since we wouldn't let them 'drive us to school'. They followed us for every single turn we made - every fork, every street. And I thought they'd go away if we didn't talk to them anymore, but they didn't. They attacked us and they almost killed us. That's how _this _could turn out."

"Whoever these people are, they're watching us. Following us, and they don't want us to know!" Lilly shouted annoyed. "Can you think of any possible way that would make you feel better? Can you?" They all looked at each other for a moment. Nobody said anything.

Lee broke the silence. "Okay. I think we could all use a little time to rest up and gather our thoughts. Then, we can go down to the waterfront and look for a boat. We've just gotta wait until those walkers clear up outside... and Omid's feelin' better." Lee added this part when he noticed that Christa gave him a slightly dirty look, as though she thought he wasn't concerned about the well being of her boyfriend.

"He best get better quick, 'cause I ain't waiting around much longer."

Lee heard Christa's barely audible mumble of, "You're gonna wait as long as he needs," but ignored it. Instead, Lilly shook her head.

"Christa, we don't have a lot of stuff he needs. We've got wire we can stitch him up with, but no needles."

"Well... look around! Maybe we can find a needle."

"This house looks like a mentally ill person lived here. I don't think they'd leave needles and knives, or stuff they could hurt themselves or someone else with. It just doesn't sound like we can do anything."

"And what about Chuck?" Larry demanded. He'd actually gotten along with the old man, and no one else seemed to be concerned about the fate of the old man.

"We'll look for him." Lee assured the man. "Me, Kenny, Lilly, and Carley can go down there and we'll look for them." Suddenly, it hit him that he had no idea where Carley was. "Please tell me we didn't leave Carley in the streets."

"I'm right here," came Carley's voice from the other room. "I've been checking the closets and the rooms down here. We're all clear."

"Good."

"We should still check the whole house," Kenny suggested, crossing his arms. "Let's get started on that."

So Lee started walking around, checking on things. The house was quite messy. Books were strewn on the floor, cabinets were hanging off their hinges in the kitchen, and their was writing on the walls. One of the messages said, "**KILL ME NOW!**" in untidy handwriting, and underneath it, was a different handwriting which read, "**Take your medicine El. It's in the kitchen. - R**"

While everyone got settled in, Lee walked around and looked at several of the pictures. One was a family portrait with a couple, two children, a toddler boy and a girl about Duck's age, and a small puppy. Another was a picture of the woman, brunette and seemingly aged beyond her years, holding a baby in a hospital blanket.

There was a wedding photo for the two adults, several school photos for the two children, and a graduation photo for the girl. There was also a picture of a the girl, maybe 14 or 15 years old, hanging upside down from some monkey bars. She had long, messy, fiery red hair and a bright, goofy looking smile. There was also one of the little boy, and he looked exactly like Duck, but with slightly lighter hair. But many of them were smashed and wrecked.

Lee went to the kitchen, wondering if the medicine "R" was writing about was still there. Sure enough, there was a pill bottle sitting on the counter.

The bottle read "Fischer, Elise Mary" and was full of blue and yellow, 5 cm long pills. On the fridge, there were drawings, many of dogs, which all had the name "Fivel" signed at the bottom. It was obviously a child's drawings. There was also some sort of message, like a reminder for the day.

_Morning everyone! I've left early for work, so here's what you need to do: _

_Daisy - take Fivel to school (BRUSH YOUR HAIR!) and write your college essay _

_Elise - TAKE YOUR MEDICINE! Breakfast (eggs and bacon) is in the fridge. Just get Daisy to heat it up in the microwave._

_Fivel - Listen to your sister and make sure mommy takes her medicine (you help too, Daisy!) _

_- Daddy/Rowan_

"Must've been a cocky type guy." Lee said to himself, directing his attention to the cabinets. He opened up all of the closed ones, and looked through the ones that were hanging open. All that he found was dog food and more of this Elise lady's pills.

"Why are there anti-psychotics everywhere?" came a voice behind him. Lee turned to see Lilly examining one of the pill bottles.

"What?" Lee wondered what she was talking about. "Anti whats?"

"Anti-psychotics." Lilly recited in a know - it - all way. "They're usually used to control Schizophrenia. I recognize the pills."

"Do you?" asked the man, opening up the fridge. There was nothing, not even the eggs and bacon that the Rowan man promised. Of course, Elise could have eaten them. "How?" But Lee was genuinely curious about how Lilly knew what anti-psychotics looked like.

"Remember how I told you about my older brother? Jacob?" Lee vaguely recalled Lilly talking about him just a few days after they'd escaped from the overrun pharmacy a few months before.

"Yeah... I guess."

Lilly looked a tiny bit upset. She closed her eyes for a moment. "Jacob had mild schizophrenia. We didn't find out until he was 16 or 17, but he used to call them his 'special pills'."

"Oh. That explains it." Lee wondered why she'd skipped over a detail that vital while talking about Jacob. "I guess this Elise woman must've been schizophrenic. Poor lady."

"Yeah." Then, Lilly looked over to the stairs with a look of concern. "I'm going to check out upstairs and see if it's safe."

"Be careful." Lee warned, finally finishing looking through the kitchen. "Take Kenny with you."

"Oh, I will. I'm not going up there by myself. I saw bloody footprints on the floor over there. I'm sure as hell not going first if there's someone up there, stabbing people people in their feet."

Lee joined her, Kenny, Larry, and Carley in searching the upstairs. There were 4 or 5 bedrooms, a bathroom, an office, and an attic. The small group split up to search the rooms. Two of them were the rooms that probably belonged to the two kids who lived in the house.

The man had been searching the girl's room with Lilly when she noticed a note laying on the desk.  
"Hey... Lee. Look at this." The note was quite lengthy and was written hastily in what seemed to be a girl's handwriting. Lilly handed it to Lee, and he scanned carefully in case it held anything important, like the location of a weapon or food stash. But it wasn't anything like that.

The note read:

_So... I guess if you're reading this, I'm probably dead. Or you've broken into my house. Or both._

_(If it's the second one, I apologize for the mess - my mom has severe schizophrenia and she doesn't like to take her medicine, so she has very violent episodes and messes the house up.)_

_Well, I guess I should tell you what's happened. My name is Daisy, I'm 18 years old (19 next month! But I doubt you care) and we've left the house so that we could infiltrate this place called Crawford. It's a safe zone by Crawford Square (by the waterfront. There's a huge barricade, so it's hard to miss) that refused to allow anyone under the age of 14, or old people, or people who have medical conditions. They're kind of like Charles Darwin, they think "survival of the fittest" is the answer to survival in the outbreak. The thing is, Fivel is only 8 and Adam is 10, plus, like I said before, my mom has schizophrenia. So were kind of fucked, then we realized that mom showed almost no signs of her illness when the person who invited us came, and he thought that Adam was 14 because of his height. So we decided to see if we could infiltrate the safe zone, take medicine and food, and then evacuate Savannah. _

_But I dunno if that happened, since you're reading this. We left Fivel here with some food and told him to ration the best he could. I hope he's okay. He should be either in his attic or his room, so if you find him, please take care of him and tell him that Daisy, mom, and dad love him. And tell him that Adam was the one who took his comic book (it was really me, but blame Adam)._

_Be safe and do NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES try to eat my mom's pills, _

_Daisy Anne Fischer_

"Holy fuck..." Lilly whispered, reading the note over Lee's shoulder.

* * *

**Well, please leave a review and tell me what you think. :)**


	16. Bad Feelings and an Irish Fence Man

**Hi. Sorry the update is so late. I've been having some personal troubles and have been neglecting my responsibilities as a writer, so please forgive me for that. Anyway... This is a longer chapter, so hopefully it'll make up for my lack of updates. **

**And I'm really hoping that you guys could possibly let me know if my writing needs more description, or if someone is OOC (Out Of Character), or something like that. Please, just shoot me a review. **

**Bye bye. **

* * *

Being under the watchful eyes of both Katjaa and Christa was one of the few things that made Clementine more uncomfortable than anything. Despite each woman's protests that she wasn't in any kind of trouble, and their pleas for information, Clementine knew better – she was in deeper trouble than she'd been in, in her entire 9 year old life.

She'd been a good kid before the apocalypse, with just a few slip ups. Before this, the deepest trouble Clementine had ever been in, was when she'd cut her friend Maya's hair in the first grade. But then again, she'd been so excited to be able to use scissors and Maya's hair had been right there, like it was asking to be cut. Other than that? Breaking her mother's vase… 4 times.

_"Diana, she's a kid," Clementine remembered her father arguing. "Kids run around the house. Kids break things. Kids -"_

_"Yes… Yes. Ed, I get it." Her mother sighed deeply and put her head in her hands. "But four times? She's broken the same vase four times. How does that even happen?"_

Clementine shifted nervously in the chair, so that she was facing away from the Katjaa, Christa, and a groaning Omid. She noticed Summer hanging off of the couch head first, while Duck was rooting through a box of toy race cars that he'd found sitting on the kitchen table.

"What're you doing?" Clementine asked quietly, noticing that Summer seemed to be trying to stretch by hanging off of the couch.

"Dunno," Summer answered, attempting to cross her arms while hanging upside down. "What're _you_ doing?"

Clementine looked away and bit her lip nervously. She shrugged. "I dunno either." Then, she leaned over the edge of the armchair she was sitting in and lowered her voice to a barely audible whisper. "Do you think I'm in trouble?"

Summer scrunched her eyebrows together. "Nuh uh. My auntie Rose said you only get in trouble for three things – cussing, lying, and looking at naked girls on the television. My daddy did that once when he was living, and my mommy said, 'Richard! Turn that off! Summer and Annabelle are in the room!' and my daddy was all, 'Stop 'stricting me, Mels!' But you didn't do any of that, so you can't be in trouble! It's the rules!"

Katjaa turned around and rolled her eyes. She sighed. She was worried about Clementine – it wasn't like her to withhold information of any kind, especially about the fact that she was practically being stalked by a grown man. This wasn't a laughing matter, and it wasn't something that they could shrug off in the way that some might. This was quite possibly a matter of life and death, if this man was desperate enough to kill people to take Clementine. That wasn't funny, and it wasn't something to shrug off. They needed the information, but Clementine just didn't want to give it up.

Katjaa had gotten the vibe that Clementine thought she was in serious trouble (which had been confirmed just a moment before), and knew how children would get in that condition. From what Katjaa knew, unless the child was being threatened by the person questioning them, it was hard to get an answer out of one, especially one who focused on nothing but keeping that secret.

Katjaa turned back to Omid and began to clean his wound with a wet wash cloth. He began to wince and she was pretty sure he was silently crying in pain. Christa sigh shakily and carefully wiped what was either sweat or tears off of Omid's face with her thumb. He turned to her slowly and whispered, "This hurts worse than when my mom gave me a black eye. 'member that?"

Christa _did _in fact remember when Omid's mother had given him a black eye. He'd gotten a 22 on an Algebra test when they were still in school and his mother was apparently upset, so she punched him. Omid came to school like that, and Christa found him balling his eyes out in a janitor's closet.

"Yeah," Christa answered back in a stiff tone. She wiped some more sweat off of Omid's face. "And the social worker does as well. If she's still alive."

"What was her name again?" Omid asked, obviously trying to distract himself from the stinging wound on his leg. "Andrea, right?"

"Probably – Andrea, maybe Adriana. Something like that."

A minute later, Katjaa set down the rag in frustration. "There's dirt in there that I can't reach without having to cut open his leg. I've… I've done what I can, but it's just stuck in there. We're going to need to think of something else that we can do."

"Well what can do?!" Christa snapped, standing up. Omid groaned. "What the hell can we do?!"

"I don't know."

Katjaa was about to suggest possibly giving Omid painkillers and doing surgery on his leg, when she was cut off by Lee's voice on the stairs.  
"Uh… We found him in the attic."

Everyone looked over to see Lee holding the corpse of what seemed to be a severely bruised child. Summer sat up over the couch.  
"He looks like Duck," she said, then added, "With bruises."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious." Lilly snarked from behind Lee. "He's shot and beat up and stabbed. I figured out where the bloody footprints came from." She gestured to several bloody footprints on the stairs. "He's been stabbed on his feet."

"Shit." Omid blurted out without thinking. He had almost no idea what they were talking about, as he was weaving in and out of consciousness. All Omid knew was that his head ached and that it was appropriate to say this.

Kenny came out of one of the upstairs rooms and started down the stairs with a visibly upset look on his face. "I think we should bury him." Every set of eyes was on him. "Carley and Larry are looking for anything useful, so… we can… we can bury him."

"Do you know what his name was?" Katjaa wondered aloud, looking around for anything in the house that could tell them what it was.  
"Either Fivel or Adam." Lilly informed the Belgian woman, crossing her arms. "Lee and I found a note upstairs in the girl's bedroom. It was signed 'Daisy Anne Fischer'. Here, show her." Lee pulled the note out of his back pocket, while shifting the boy in his arms to avoid dropping him. He walked over to Katjaa and deposited the note into her open hand.

Quickly, she read it with Christa looking over her shoulder.

"Oh, my God," Katjaa whispered in a horrified tone. Her gaze shifted to the boy in Lee's arms. "Someone must've…" she closed her eyes and clenched her fist. "Someone must've read this and found that poor boy… The pain he must've gone through…" No one said anything for a moment, when Katjaa again broke the silence.

"This girl… this _irresponsible _girl… She just led whoever killed him straight to him." The woman's eyes began large, and no one else dared to speak. "I can't believe this."

Then, Lilly dared to speak. "That was stupid, but are we going to bury him? The smell's staring to make me sick." A moment later, she and Kenny headed out to the backyard. Lee boosted the boy up in his arms to avoid dropping him and was about to join them, when someone grabbed his shoulder. He turned to see an upset looking Christa.

"What?" Lee asked, shrugging.

Christa pointed her thumb towards Clementine and lowered her voice. "When you get done, I need you to talk to Clementine about the man on her radio. She's not budging on it for me or Katjaa."

"Alright, I will. Just let me bury this kid before someone actually _does_ get sick off of him."

So Lee followed Lilly and Kenny outside. Lilly had the shovel in her hand and was idly pushing around some dirt with the tip, while Kenny leaned up against the deserted dog house and sighed deeply.

"I guess it's the closest thing to a funeral." He said, nodding towards the hole, which was still uncovered. The pretty much beheaded dog was still laying there ("I'm actually a bit surprised it didn't just get up and walk off to find food." Lilly pointed out. None of them actually knew if animals reanimated.), so Lee laid the boy next to him.

He took the shovel from Lilly a moment later and began to scoop up the dried dirt, then dumped it over the boy's and the dog's bodies. He did this for a moment, until both were completely covered. As he turned around and prepared to head back inside with Lilly and Kenny, Kenny let out a shout.

"Shit!" Kenny shouted, as Lee and Lilly both turned to where he was facing.

There was someone watching them through the fence – man. It was hard to see him through the thick fog, but what they could see was that he was around 6 feet tall with a red beard and brown hair. The man suddenly jumped up with a horrified look on his face. He slowly backed away and then took off down the road, shouting for someone to run.

The three of them instinctively ran to the fence, their bodies filled with shock and terror that they'd been being watched that entire time they were burying the boy.

"Who the hell are you?" Lee shouted down the street where they could still see the man running in the distance. The man's voice was faint, but there was one thing that was clear – it sounded nothing like the man on Clementine's radio. In fact, the man almost sounded _Irish_.

The backyard door swung open, revealing Katjaa, Larry, Christa, and the kids with surprised expressions on their faces. A moment later, Carley and Larry followed them out.

"What're you yelling about?" asked Katjaa in an exasperated voice. Her blue eyes were the size of dinner plates, and were full of worry and fear. Christa was looking towards the fence with a shifty eyed look. Clementine was staring straight at Lee.

Larry rolled his eyes. "Oh, I'm sure he was just trying to bring the walkers to come and kill us all – like usual. Nothing to worry about, Katjaa." He informed the blonde woman in a sarcastic tone. Or Lee _hoped_ it was sarcastic. But you never knew when it came to Larry.

"Oh, hush!" Carley hissed, beginning to grab for her Glock, which was sticking out of her pocket. "Let him explain!"

"Lee…" Clementine began, curling her tiny hand over her other wrist, as she always seemed to do when she was nervous. "Who was that? Was that a bad guy?"

"There was a guy, just standing there… _staring _at us." Lee exclaimed, dropping the shovel near the shed. He and the other two walked over to the rest of the group.

"You're absolutely _sure_ it was a guy?" asked Carley with a raised eyebrow. She put her hand on her hip, as though she was doubtful that it was a man. Lee gave her a small glare.

"Either it was a man, or a woman with a beard and short hair." Lee said this in a flattened tone, wishing she wouldn't argue with it.

"Great," Larry muttered quietly. "It's probably a lady on steroids."

"Okay, that's it." Kenny began in louder tone. "We've stuck around here long enough. It's time to get back on track – get back on down to the river, and find ourselves a boat." Christa took a deep breath.

"I really don't think Omid's well enough to move yet." Christa piped up, crossing her arms, looking towards the house where Omid was resting.

Kenny gave her a barely sympathetic look. "Well, tell yer little boyfriend that he needs to get ready. Because I'm goin' down to River Street right now to find a boat and as soon as it's ready to go, _we're _moving out." Lee glared at Kenny, wondering if the man was intentionally trying to make it sound like they would just leave Omid and Christa behind. Granted, they hadn't none the couple long, but it was still somewhat their fault that the two had gotten stuck with them.

"Hold on. I've gotta speak to Clem privately and we still haven't checked downstairs for extra stuff. Or most of the upstairs, right? What'd you find?" Lee's last question was directed towards Carley and Larry.

Carley raised an eyebrow. "Well... I found some very interesting diary entries in the girl's room, I found some pornos in the parents' room, and I found some comics in the boy's room."

"What kind?" Clementine and Duck both piped excitedly, their solemn demeanor changing. Summer rolled her eyes.

"Reading's boring..." she muttered, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, Carley's goin' the right way. Somewhat." Carley just rolled her eyes. "We're low on a lot of stuff. We don't have much of that station wagon food left, and Omid probably needs some pain medicine. Lets take another look and then we can head down there."

"Exactly." Lilly began, nodding towards the house. "And if we even need to, we could stay here -" but Kenny cut her off.

"Oh, no. No, no, no. We're not turnin' this fucking house into another Motor Inn. Not again!"

"Let 'er talk, for Gods' sake!" Christa snapped at the man, folding her arms together. "Let her talk before you just jump to conclusions." She muttered something that sounded like,"Jesus, you remind of my father sometimes. Always interrupting people..." Kenny quickly turned to face the woman.

"'Sometimes'? Honestly, why don't you get the hell out of this? It's not your business! You have no idea what ever loving _fuck_ we've been through." Christa's facial expression didn't change. It was still on the, 'Fight me, goddammit!' look that it always held.

"Kenny!" Lee snapped, gripping him by his shoulder before he did something they would _all _regret him doing. "Just... stop, man." Kenny's tired eyes shot Lee a glare that would have made anyone else die inside, but Lee didn't let him go that far. "There's no sense in fighting. We're going _nowhere_ with this, okay? Now if you could all stop acting like children, we could actually get something done for a change. Lilly, continue." Lilly had a very unimpressed look to it, while Larry's seemed angry and stressed.

She turned her head to Christa. "I can fight my _own _battles, thank you." Christa rolled her eyes in a very annoyed way, almost like a teenager. "And what I was _saying_," She shot Kenny an angry look. "was that we could stay in the house if we really needed to. Even in the... very unlikely event we find a boat, we still would need a way to get it out to the water. And until the walkers on the streets clear -" she pointed to a lone walker that was stumbling down the road. "- that's gonna happen. It's just not. You've gotta deal with that fact."

Kenny lifted an unimpressed eyebrow. "What'd ya mean 'very unlikely event'? This city's dead! There's gonna be at least one person who's left without their boat. Or turned or - hell, I DON'T KNOW!" Katjaa's eyes got very wide as her husband yelled the last part of his sentence.

"Ken - Please, just - Stop yelling!" she shouted, which seemed to be counterproductive, as it sparked another argument between Kenny and Katjaa, versus the argument between Lilly and Kenny, which brought in Lee, which brought in Larry.

And Carley and Christa looked on awkwardly, while the kids seemed to be scared that the walkers might be attracted by the shouting.

"Do they do this a lot?" Christa asked, constantly refolding and unfolding her arms.

"Oh yeah. I forgot you and Omid are new here. This is _normal_. Except Katjaa - she never gets involved." Carley smirked slightly, adjusting the eye patch across her face.

"Jesus..." Christa moaned, shaking her head.

"Can you deal with it?"

"Oh sure. 'Do I _want_ to deal with it?' is the question."

Carley shrugged uncaringly. "You used to this?"

"I'm the middle kid, Carley. I grew up with two older Irish Twin sisters who argued about everything from each other's eye color to my mother's shoe size, and a younger brother who constantly started food fights at almost every meal. What do _you _think?" Carley smirked and put her hand on her hip.

"Funny. _My _twin brothers were complete angels at every meal."

"Well, congrats, you lucky fucking duck."

"Swear." Clementine whispered to herself, wishing that everyone would just quit shouting bad words to each other. She really wished that they had a "Cursing Jar", like what her parents had; every time you said a swear, you had to put a quarter into the jar, and it went towards a DisneyWorld trip that had never actually happened. If it was, say Clementine, who had said the swear, either she would put a quarter in or loose a privilege for two weeks. Clem didn't have quarters, though.

But it would've been a good idea to show to the others, because they never seemed to stop saying the bad words.

"HEY!" Carley shouted very suddenly, making Clementine jump. Everyone stopped at once, seemingly startled by the sudden yell. "Are we gonna go to fucking harbor, or _what?_ Standing here, arguing about a bunch of shit isn't gonna get us a boat sooner."

Christa marveled for about how easy it was for Carley to get them to stop arguing for a moment. That never worked for her. Ever.

"Er - right... Yeah." Lee moaned, looking towards Clementine. "Hang on - Clem, come with me for a moment." He began to head into the house, looking back occasionally to make sure Clementine was following him. She quickly followed him.

"I know that look... She's deader than a box of rocks." Summer whispered to Duck, who gave her a confused stare.

"Boxes weren't alive," he pointed out, cocking his head to the side. "Ever."

"Exactly." Summer smirked. Duck's whispers of, "Oh..." seemed to have made her happy.

* * *

"Alright. Clem, sit down." Lee gestured to the arm chair in the living room, which Clem quickly sat down in. "Listen, Clem... I just want you tell me about this man. Who is he? What have been saying to him? What's he been saying to _you_?" Clementine's eyes quickly averted Lee's gaze and she stayed silent.

"Clementine." Lee spoke again in a slightly harsher tone. "I asked you a question, and I expect it to be answered."

Clementine's face became very red quickly, as though it was scaring her a lot more than Lee would think. Quickly, he added, "Clem, you're not in any kind of trouble. You can tell me. It's alright."

"It's... just a friend. I don't think... he wants to hurt us." Lee's eyes became wide with worry. If Clementine thought that this man was her "friend", there was no way that she was going to understand that he was potentially dangerous to the group.

"Clementine -"

"He said he can help me find my parents!" Clementine said quickly, as though it was a way to defend this man. "He's in Savannah, at the Marsh House! My parents were there!" Her wide, amber eyes melted into Lee's soul in a way that made him almost want to believe that this man was telling the truth, for Clementine's sake. But he knew that would never be true.

"He really seems nice." Clementine added, shifting in her chair. "He wants _help _me."

"Clem, trust me -"

Lee's speech was suddenly cut off when the door opened quickly, and Lilly was poked half of her body in. "Lee! The walkers are starting to go leave the area by River Street. If we're gonna miss them, we need to leave now." Her brown eyes connected with Clementine's and then she seemed to have realized what she interrupted.

"Oops... Sorry." Lee stood up, not realizing that he'd knelt down to Clementine's height.

"Nah, it's fine. Let's go ahead and go. Clem," Clementine looked up to him. "we'll finish this talk later, okay?"

"Okay." She almost sounded disappointed, but her disappointment only increased when the answer to her next question arose. "Lee...? Can I come with you guys?"

"What? No. It's too dangerous out there. We'll be back in a bit. Don't give Katjaa or Christa any trouble, and stay out of Larry's way, don't bother Omid... Okay, Clem?" Clementine sighed.

"Okay..."

So Lee, Lilly, Kenny, and Carley left a moment later, armed to the teeth with whatever weapons they had. While the kids chatted amongst themselves, Omid's pain filled groaning only got louder. Larry, who was laying on the couch, had clearly had enough of it.

"Would you shut up?" he hissed, covering his large ears. Omid didn't answer, and instead turned over on his side and pressed his face into Christa's stomach, as some sort of way to way to stop his groans. She began to run her fingers through Omid's hair in a soothing way, but his groans only got louder, no matter how hard he pressed his face into her stomach.

"What, are you having an orgasm? Quit your moaning!" Larry shouted, sitting up on the couch. Christa shot him a glare.

"Why don't you shut up and mind your own business? He's in pain!"

Larry's face contorted with anger, as though he'd never expected someone to talk back to him and was upset about that little fact. He stared at Christa for a moment, before Katjaa broke the tension.

"Why don't we take him upstairs?" she suggested, putting her hand on Christa's shoulder. Christa turned away from Larry.

"Fine. Are you gonna help me carry him?"

"I didn't think you pick him up by yourself."

Clementine noticed that Larry didn't seem to want to help with Omid. He just went right back to attempting to sleep on the couch. With Christa and Katjaa attempting to pick up Omid, everyone except her, Duck, and Summer, were completely distracted.

And the back door was completely unguarded.

_I could just leave and go find Lee and my parents_... Clementine thought about this for a moment... Maybe it was at least worth a shot.

Finally, Christa and Katjaa had managed to lift up Omid and were attempting to go up the stairs.

Clementine quickly got up and darted into the kitchen, hoping that no one saw her.

In the kitchen was Duck with a piece of dog food in his hand. "Summer dared me to eat it. Should I eat it?"

"Ew! No, why would she dare you to eat it?" Duck shrugged and put the dog food in his food anyway. He regretted it when he gagged and spit it out on the floor a moment later, making Summer dissolve into a fit of giggles she tried to hold in.

"You're mean, Summer!" he shouted, trying to clean off his tongue while gagging. "That was gross! Clem, what're you doing?" Duck seemed to have noticed Clementine trying to go out the door.

"Shh!" she put a finger to her lips and slowly opened the back door, cringing slightly as it creaked loudly. "I'm going to go find my mom and dad!"

"Can we come?" Duck asked, exchanging looks with Summer, who quit laughing immediately. Her blue eyes suddenly became wide with fear and panic.

"I don't wanna go out there!" she exclaimed, taking a step back from Duck. "There's biters out there!"

"If you wanna come, that's fine. But I'm gonna find my parents." Clementine headed out to the backyard and quietly closed the door.

Duck turned to face Summer, and asked, "What're you so afraid of?"

"Ending up like Trav." Summer squeaked, putting her small fists up to her mouth. "And the biters ate my aunt. They'll eat me too."

Duck didn't seem to register exactly what Summer meant, except for the Travis part.

"Oh come on. We'll be _fine_."

The next thing they knew, Duck was dragging her out of the house to follow Clementine.

"I've gotta really bad feeling about this!"

* * *

**Haha. Summer shows some of her "Inner Ben". Well, bye. **

**- Clover**


End file.
